FCC’s Tom Wheeler Plans Broadband Internet Access for Low-Income Americans

The US Federal Communications Commission proposed on Thursday a plan to offer subsidized broadband Internet access to low-income Americans.

FCC's Chairman Tom Wheeler will roll out a plan for the $1.7 billion Lifeline program in order for the low-income Americans to have an access for the wireless internet service. The said program, which started under President Ronald Reagan's regime, collects fees from cell phone and landline telephone users in order for the telephone services to be more affordable for the poorer Americans, Reuters reports.

It was expanded in 2008 under the term of President George W. Bush to include wireless phones. Now, Wheeler wants the program to expand its services by extending the broadband internet access either wired or wireless.

If the FCC's Chairman's plan will be sustained, the broadband internet service will cater roughly 12 million households, which are subscribed to the Lifeline program. "Over a span of three decades, the program has helped tens of millions of Americans afford basic phone service," Wheeler wrote in a blog post on Thursday. "But as communications technologies and markets evolve, the Lifeline program also has to evolve to remain relevant."

Wheeler will propose giving the recipients a choice of phone service, Internet service or a mix of both, according to New York Times. This proposal by the FCC's executive will tackle the so-called "digital divide." In a report by The Wall Street Journal, the internet capability of the African-American and Hispanic households are less than the other homes in the nation as a whole.

The Lifeline program has received criticisms from lawmakers in the past years due to the onslaught of fraud and abuse. Bush's government is one of the sources of controversy as his expansion of the Lifeline program in 2008 led to some households receiving more than one subsidy, as Reuters notes.

However, Wheeler will also suggest new measures to control fraud, reports claim.