Save on your phone bill using a telephone assistance program

To help ensure that telephone service is both affordable and available to all Americans, especially lower income telephone customers and anyone who may be facing financial hardships or crisis, the federal government created a telephone assistance program that is run by individual state governments.

The first component of this program, known as Lifeline, will provide lower income consumers with a discount of up to $15 per month (depending on your state) on the local service portion of your telephone bill. Then, if you select the lowest cost residential service plan that is offered by your local telephone company, that will ensure that those in need have an affordable monthly telephone bill. This assistance program does not provide discounts for long distance charges or special phone features such as Caller ID or Call Waiting. Note that the government Lifeline program will even provide aid for a cell phone as well.

 

 

 

The second component of the government telephone assistance program is Link-up. This will pay for half of the telephone installation charges for someone installing a new telephone service, up to a maximum of $50.00 or so, depending on your state. It will even pay for cell phone service as well. Link-up is but one program offered by many states and local organizations. Find additional government assistance programs.

To further reduce the initial cost to families to establish this new telephone service, consumers that need help can also request to your local telephone company that the balance of the telephone installation charge be divided over a period of several months. So you can pay the initial installation costs over a period of time. Also, in many states you will not be required to pay a deposit if you request "local phone service only" and also request "long distance block" when connecting your service under Link-up. In addition, Link-Up will also let consumers borrow up to $200-$300 of setup fees, interest-free, for up to one year time frame, so consumers can technically get a zero interest loan to help pay phone installation bills.

This program was created to ensure that quality telecommunications services are available to low-income customers across the nation. The government wants to help provide them access to phone service, and even cellular phones, at affordable rates. The Lifeline program is funded by the Universal Service Charge which is billed to all cell phone users across the county.

How do you qualify for Link-Up and Lifeline?

Each state has its own criteria. The government Link-Up and Lifeline Telephone Assistance Programs are available in every state across the country. People can even be eligible for the program if they live in US territories and commonwealths. Currently since states have their own Lifeline program, they will have their own criteria for being able to apply.

The Lifeline telephone assistance program is part of the Low Income Program of the Universal Service Fund. Many community action agencies can also refer people to the program and provide more information on Link-Up and Lifeline.