T-Mobile Lifeline Plans End for 7 States

Written by Pamela Lipscomb in Phone Providers

T-Mobile lifeline cell phone service is coming to an end for Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New York and Tennessee, and the District of Columbia.  This major cell phone provider is pulling out of Lifeline program altogether. They will no longer provide free government phone service to the disadvantaged, but will still offer a variety of phone plans.

T-Mobile filed with the FCC,  notice of ‘Relinquishment of Lifeline-Only Eligibility Telecommunications Carrier (“ETC”) Designation for the purpose of providing Lifeline Services, effective December 31, 2014.  The states covered are Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New York, Tennessee, and the District of Columbia.

T-Mobile Lifeline Cell Phone Service

At present, the company only has 400 Lifeline customers signed up.  T-Mobile is one of the few telecommunications companies in the Lifeline program, that did not offer free phones and minutes. They are not obligated by federal law to do, and they chose not to.  They did, however, they give eligible customers a $10 discount on phone service.  The $10 did not come out of company’s till, but was the monthly subsidy amount already given to Lifeline providers for each person enrolled in the no-cost free government phone program.

Lifeline Assistance

Lifeline, a government benefits program provides free and discount services to financially eligible consumers in America.  The program is paid for by the Universal Service Funds collected from public phone bills.  

Because of previous fraud by customers and telecommunications company alike, there has been a massive overhaul of how Lifeline screens customer and accepted into the no-cost federal program.   This fraud hurt the millions of families that are truly eligible for this help and can jeopardize the program itself.

Now, anyone seeking to register for free government phone services must present proof of income or their inclusion in government assistance programs. 

You must present documentation each year the customer re-certifies.   This will be a minimal loss of low-income customers as they never provided totally free phones or services to their clientele in the first place.  Also, they only covered seven states under the program.  
 
T-Mobile Lifeline will not take new government customers for some states but will continue to service customers presently signed up with Lifeline and are still enrolling in, Florida, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Virginia, Washington for a year and a half.  Most users will probably move their services to full-service providers offering free phones and service.  Please see the FCC Filing Report  

If you have service with T-Mobile and are looking for a new provider in your area; check out the list of Lifeline companies that offer free phones and up 250 minutes.  We will continue to monitor T-Mobile for changes and update their status.

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