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California city to ban free government cell phone street tents

October 5, 2017

One California city is getting ready to ban the street tents and events that promote and distribute Lifeline free government cell phones.

Modesto, a city with about 200,000 residents, is located about 80 miles east of San Francisco. Officials there say they are getting ready to ban these pop-up street events because they are operating without business licenses.

California was late to the Lifeline free government cell phone program and service providers did not begin offering plans in the Golden State until 2013. Some of those providers — Life Wireless, Assurance Wireless, Airvoice Wireless and Bluejay Wireless, to be specific — began enrolling customers at street events in Modesto soon thereafter.

The problem? Some of those tents were erected on private property, in parks, and even on city sidewalks without permission from the property owners or the city. Complaints popped up almost as soon as the tents did.

The Modesto Bee explains what happened next:

Modesto’s municipal code does not allow itinerant vendors, a business without a brick and mortar location, said Neighborhood Preservation Unit supervisor Chris Kemper. There are exceptions for vendors at festivals and farmers markets, but the service providers can’t get a business license, then set up shop anywhere in town.

Police spokeswoman Heather Graves said that in addition to complaints about the location of tents, officers have responded to calls about tents damaging nearby vehicles and also to disputes between marketers who were set up near each other. The people marketing the phones get paid on commission per cell phone and plan issued, so the dispute was a turf war of sorts, she said.

Kemper said that over the past year, the police and Neighborhood Preservation Unit have responded to 30 to 40 complaints.

Confusion reigned. Modesto wanted to hand out citations, but didn’t because it realized that it had mistakenly given business licenses to two of the free government cell phone companies without realizing that they intended to do business as “itinerant vendors.”

Oops!

One of the accidentally-licensed companies was authorized to operate at fourteen different tent locations.

The Bee reports the final outcome:

The companies that had the licenses were notified they would not receive a renewal, and those that have inquired since have been told they would not be issued a license…

Kemper said citations are likely if the vendors don’t comply when told to pack up shop.
He said, so far, he has only spoken with people at one tent that was in a park. He said he was met with hostility from the people, who accused him of harassing them.

Kemper said he is working with Modesto police “to make sure we do this correctly” before taking action.


Far be it from us to say, “I told you so,” but we have warned our readers over and over and over again NOT to enroll at tent events.

They have been the scenes of so much waste, fraud and abuse that we cannot bring ourselves to recommend that you enroll at one of those locations. Please do yourself a huge favor and enroll for the Lifeline free government cell phone program by phone or online from the comfort (and safety) of your own home.

In order to make that a little simpler, CLICK HERE to find a complete list of all the Lifeline companies and plans available in your state.

Tagged as: California

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Comments

  1. Marcia Yonning says

    December 21, 2022 at 12:42 am

    These vendors are 1099, they don’t do taxes. It’s mostly commission. Now the license is a must and understandable on being on private property without permission. I learned a lot and been cited by cops when I worked for life wireless for 5 years. It’s the vendors boss responsibility to make sure each vendor has a copy of the license with them.

  2. Stacy Calvert says

    November 23, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    The license is for tax purposes. There is no tax on what phone vendors do. It’s a bogus thing. Doesn’t make any sense. Think about that.

    • Free Government Cell Phones says

      November 23, 2022 at 5:37 pm

      Your guess is as good as ours.

    • Henry says

      November 23, 2022 at 6:12 pm

      Usually, local governments issue business licenses to merchants who operate businesses in that state. I do not believe that the license is related to tax matters because the EIN is what is used to report business income and expenses on a return. A business license can be compared to a driver’s license. That has nothing to do with taxes but is mainly a record for the state for all driver licenses issued in that state. There were many street vendors in my city taking parking spaces to operate their food businesses. Some had no business licenses, and the local government was trying to fine them for that. I suppose when they do apply for a business license, the local government will take down their EIN and pass that on to the local income tax department.

      In my warehouse club, private vendors set up a display inside the warehouse to sell their merchandise. Do they have a license to do that? I have never known that they do.

  3. Georgie robert says

    October 2, 2021 at 9:59 pm

    My sim card lock

    • Free Government Cell Phones says

      October 3, 2021 at 5:32 am

      Here are a couple articles that tell you how to solve the problem:

      https://www.freegovernmentcellphones.net/reader-questions/can-i-use-my-safelink-wireless-sim-card-in-another-phone

      https://www.freegovernmentcellphones.net/?s=PUK

  4. Andrew says

    October 29, 2019 at 2:25 pm

    Were can I pick up free phone?

    • Free Government Cell Phones says

      October 29, 2019 at 2:31 pm

      You need to enroll and prove your eligibility first, Andrew. You can do that by phone or online.

      • Stacy Calvert says

        November 23, 2022 at 1:46 pm

        Or a vendor

  5. Saboteuse says

    July 26, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    There are FOUR Federal Lifeline Cellular Phone Programs in California:

    http://www.mycricket.com/
    https://www.reachoutmobile.com/
    http://www.assurancewireless.com
    http://www.telscape.us/

    There are also several California STATE approved providers as well. Contact the State Program Office to find out which ones are available for you own area

    • Free Government Cell Phones says

      July 27, 2018 at 12:53 pm

      Readers can see all the companies and plans available in California on our California page. You can find that here:

      https://www.freegovernmentcellphones.net/states

    • Stacy Calvert says

      November 23, 2022 at 1:47 pm

      And SafeLink, Tru connect and a few more. Ask Google.

  6. Rick D says

    January 19, 2018 at 8:06 pm

    Wish they would do this in San Jose.

    • Stacy Calvert says

      November 23, 2022 at 1:48 pm

      They do, by social services and downtown.

  7. Jill Chacon says

    January 7, 2018 at 12:30 pm

    Modesto you guys realized that the homeless and underprivileged are the ones that need theses phones the most right?. They need them to make doctor appointments, call their mental health agency and make appointments with them, calling the police if being attacked or needs to be taken either to DBHC, or DMC for help, etc….. Not everyone has internet service and the homeless defiantly do not…. In stead of making it harder for these two populations to get phones. I think you are all ridicules for banning them. I think you should give them an extended amount of time to fix the license issue before just banning them. Also, not everyone has a means to get around to where every they are going to be located… I mean California is the one that wants to be a safe haven for everyone from everywhere… which I defiantly don’t agree with,,, we got enough people in this state already and it has become the filthiest state in the nation!!!! Trash is everywhere, there is no place in this state that you can get completely away from people…. I am ashamed of Modesto for being so discussing, and not to mention the air quality. But here ya go again, taking something so needed from the ones that need it the most, You could be spending that money on cleaning up this filthy city of ours!!!! Find a better way of dealing

    • Stacy Calvert says

      November 23, 2022 at 1:53 pm

      I agree and even make it hard for them to get. Ridiculous. I’m sure there are many more things that could be looked at long before this comes up. Somebody seriously needs to look at the business license issue though. If you look up a business license and it’s purposes it is for tax purposes. Nothing new phone vendors do needs tax purposes. These phones are given away. Maybe there’s a few out there selling upgrades that could be taxable but for the most part no they aren’t

  8. Tad Hatch says

    October 8, 2017 at 9:29 am

    Live in Sacramento, California. Here, I have never seen a tent outdoors but seen a stand inside discount stores and supermarkets quite often.

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