Thread: Carlos Slim, World’s Richest Man, Gets Richer Supplying ‘Obamaphones’ to Poor

Carlos Slim, World’s Richest Man, Gets Richer Supplying ‘Obamaphones’ to Poor

October 13, 2012





By Perry Chiaramonte



A Mexican telecom mogul who holds the title of world’s richest man, and one of President Obama’s top donors are both getting even richer from the U.S. government program that supplies so-called “Obamaphones” to the poor.


Carlos Slim, who has an estimated net worth of $70 billion, owns a controlling stake in TracFone, which makes $10 per phone for each device it provides to poor Americans. The company, whose president and CEO is Frederick “F.J.” Pollak, also makes money from extra minutes and data plans it sells to subscribers who get phones and service through the government’s Lifeline program. The program, which began in the mid-1980s, has exploded in the past four years after being expanded from supplying landlines to the poor to providing cellular phones.

The phones came into the national spotlight after a viral video surfaced on YouTube in which a Cleveland, Ohio, woman praised the president, saying he needed to be re-elected because he gives out free phones.


“Everybody in Cleveland, every minority, got an Obama phone. Keep Obama as president. He gave us a phone. He gonna do more,” the woman said in the video.





Slim’s Movil America owns TracFone and recently snapped up service provider Simple Mobile for $100 million. TracFones and Simple Mobile service are huge players in the Lifeline program through the company’s “SafeLink Wireless” brand. TracFone had 3.8 million subscribers through the federal program as of late 2011.
Carlos Slim, World’s Richest Man, Gets Richer Supplying ‘Obamaphones’ to Poor [continued]

Wow! You read my mind or I read someone elses mind! Just yesterday the thought crossed my mind to check on this cel phone for crack heads and illegal immigrants scandal to see if Carlos Slim was involved. So happy that someone else has done this research.

Now ALIPAC will help distribute it far and wide.

W

Article posted yesterday as a comment @

http://www.alipac.us/f9/obamaphones-...donors-265070/ .

This has been around since 1985.
It expanded to cell phones in 2008.

Since 1985 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has operated a program called Lifeline, originally designed to provide free landline phone service for low-income individuals. The government subsidizes telecommunications firms providing the service, and those firms also pass on costs to customers via the “Universal Service Charge” on their phone bills.

The program expanded to include cell phones in 2008. That change has rapidly increased the cost to the federal government—$1.6 billion in 2011, up from $772 million in 2008. The number of Lifeline beneficiaries rose from 7.1 million to 12.5 million during the same period; cell phones account for roughly half of that 12.5 million.

@ http://www.alipac.us/f9/obamaphones-...donors-265070/

AT&T Lifeline - Low-Income Phone Service
www.att.com/gen/general?pid=22888
AT&T Lifeline offers a discounted telephone service plan to make basic phone service even more affordable for qualified customers.


Lifeline - Wireless from AT&T
www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/.../lifeline-link-up.jsp
AT&T is proud to offer Lifeline service, which provides discounted service for eligible customers. If you live on tribal lands, you could also qualify for Enhanced ...