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T-Mobile now offering Lifeline cell phones in five states

T-Mobile South is now offering the Lifeline Assistance program to Florida’s needy residents. They joins Alltel to become the second traditional wireless carrier to offer a discount cell phone service to low-income Floridians.

T-Mobile can now receive reimbursement for each customer from the Federal Universal Service Fund, which telecommunications companies are required to contribute to. The fee is often passed on to consumers as a “Universal Connectivity Fee.”

T-Mobile’s program comes with a few twists that make it stand out (not necessarily in a good way) from most other Lifeline programs around the country. Like the other programs, T-Mobile customers are eligible to get discounted phones; but they are not free. The two biggest differences are the number of minutes customers receive and the price they pay.

Instead of offering 250 free minutes typical with free Lifeline programs in other states, T-Mobile’s Florida customers will get 145 “whenever” minutes plus 500 night minutes and 500 weekend minutes per month. It’s not free, however. They’ll be required to pay $6.49 and an activation fee of $17.50. And, unfortunately, a customer’s unused minutes will not roll over to the next month.

Another problem with this program is it appears that no text messaging is allowed. Other free government cell phones programs allow text messaging, usually at a cost of a dollar a text sent or received. Not cheap, but at least texting is available.

Also troubling is the 2-year contract we found in the fine print. The Lifeline programs we cover on FreeGovernmentCellPhones.net do not require a contract.

Qualifying for Lifeline in Florida is unfortunately all too easy these days. Residents who participate in certain public assistance programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and SSI, or have a qualifying income level are eligible under 150% of the federal poverty level, qualify. More than 618,000 Floridians participate in the Lifeline program already.

The Lifeline business is getting very crowded in Florida. According to the state’s Public Utility Commission, competitors include T-Mobile, Altel, Safelink Wireless (Tracfone) and Assurance Wireless (Virgin Mobile).

T-Mobile is rapidly expanding its presence in the Lifeline Assistance business and now competes in Kentucky, North Carolina, Washington State, and Puerto Rico.

T-Mobile Lifeline Program: click here

Source: Palm Beach Post

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Comments

  1. I need a T Mobile free phone. Im on food stamps in FL ACCESS_FLORIDA_APPLICATION_DETAILS_686147323.pdf

    Reply

  3. I am disabled and on Medicaid, I need a phone so I can reach my family . I live in an ALF , they have one phone for all the residents to use. I had a stroke ten years ago . Please help me with a simple phone . I need it to call only. I had one my friend was able to get for me, now its

    Reply

    • We’re not sure what an “ALF” is, Michel. We’re going to guess and say it stands for Adult Living Facility or Alzheimer’s Living Facility. Either way, here’s where you look for the companies offering free government cell phone plans in your state:

      https://www.freegovernmentcellphones.net/states

      They are all required to give smart phones to new customers. If you want something more basic than that — a old-fashioned flip phone, for example — you might want to ask the customer service agents if they offer a Bring Your Own Phone program. If so, you could buy one of those basic phones and then use it as your free government cell phone. But PLEASE make sure you buy one that is compatible with your service provider’s network.

      Reply

  4. Hi,
    I would like to know if my friend is qualified for a free cell phone.
    Ihe is disabled , on SS , Medicaid and receive Medicare.
    Ihe lives in An ALF .has no way of communication and no internet access.

    Reply

  5. My Leonard Conrad I need a government phone because I get medicate my email address is ********@gmail.com

    Reply

    • You need to contact each company using the contact info we provide on each company’s page.

      Reply

  8. I cancelled my Assurance Wireless lifeline phone a few weeks ago, partially due to problems with my service, but mainly because you can’t use smartphones. I found out about this T-Mobile plan where I can get service for a small amount of money per month, and as far as I can tell, you can use any of their compatible phones. I saw a good but reasonably priced T-Mobile phone in the store, and it’s also available on Amazon, where I now have a decent-sized amount of store credit after trading in some stuff.

    I have been trying to sign up for this T-Mobile service, but the process has been painfully slow. You send in an application via mail (or fax, which I don’t have access to), so it takes 1-2 weeks between responses. I’ve had trouble applying to other providers too, and according to one of my response letters from T-Mobile, it’s because my name and address don’t match up correctly in the national lifeline database (I moved last year to a new address, maybe that’s part of the problem). The biggest frustration with signing up for T-Mobile is that there is no way to contact their lifeline department via phone. In one of the response letters, they gave a contact number of 844-213-3926, extension 3418061, but every time I call it I get a recording saying to leave a message, and although I’ve done so several times, they NEVER call me back. This seems to be a sign of pathetic customer service, but I’m still pursuing them because they seem to be one of the only lifeline/discount services that let you choose your own phone.

    It should be noted that they’re not the only ones who are hard to contact online. On one of your pages here is TerraCom says “you can use your own phone if it is compatible to our services.” I tried contacting them to get a list of compatible phones, but when I fill out their contact form, it always results in some kind of “invalid message format” error.

    Does anyone have any information or insight into T-Mobile’s service, especially the signup process which has been agonizingly slow for me. I’ve been without a usable cell phone for about a month now, and though I’m desperate for one as soon as possible I want the option to get a good one.

    Reply

    • Here’s our two cents. T-Mobile typically offers Lifeline “discounts,” not free government cell phones. But that may well be what you’re looking for. Just do yourself a favor and make sure you know what kind of contract you’re signing.

      Reply

  9. Hi I wounder if have lifeline program with tmoblie service and I like to know if have program that I can use my smartphone and tablet to tmoblie program and try to catch up with my bill. I wounld like to do my best with tmoblie service but having hard time catch with bill for pass few month now I wounder if have program that can help me ?

    Reply

  10. I need a cell phone my old one died on me and I need to have a phone because I have 2 elderly parents that I need to keep in touch with I’m on public assistance and I can not afford to buy a smart phone or any other type of phone can you please help me

    Reply

  13. I was invited to join the Lifeline program through a text I received from T-Mobile three months ago. I have sent in the requested forms and verification of eligibility and I cannot get a response. T-Mobile is only the signal carrier and they do not have any information about contacting Lifeline. Please help! The free phone I had through Assurance wireless had no range when applying for jobs and trying to receive calls back from employers. I need to speak to a person from Lifeline in order to resolve this problem. Can someone please help me?

    Reply

  15. I’ve been a customer for over 7yrs. Me and my 12 yr old son are both disabled. I am epileptic and seize 4 to 6 times a week. My son is autistic with seizures as well. My phone has been cut off numerous times and left us without a way to reach our family when we need medication or food because we can’t drive. Every time my phone was turned off because our disability checks couldn’t cover the bills I asked customer about deals for the disabled they always said you didn’t have them. My phone was cut off again this morning and we have no money until the 1st….my number is 334-354-****….please let me know if theres anything I can do to restore service

    Reply

  19. Nebula -Like a previous potser, you completely missed the point of this so-called very poor taste in writing. This article is not about poor people, throwing them under the bus, or even pushing them into active volcanoes. It’s against the distasteful advertising used by the companies as they look for new clients. Period.Save your obviously biased political views and Republican bashing for other places.Kayla -Yeah, Lifeline Assistance has been around for quite some time. I haven’t found anything online about it providing phone rates super cheap, but rather a slight to moderate discount on your phone service depending where you live. Not sure how well of business it’s doing in comparison to these other companies that offer completely free phone service.When it comes to going between a small discount or completely free (but limited) phone service, the choice seems fairly obvious. It’s mainly a matter of knowing how much of a discount your state offers with Lifeline Assistance.

    Reply
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