FCC Emergency Broadband

This was supposed to be a god send.  Free internet for low income households.  Easy right?  No.  Of course not.  First I needed to find out if I was even eligible and give them my whole life story and nearly ten pages of documents stating I’m poor and disabled.  Then I had to take that email saying I was eligible and give it to Optimum.  Again, not easy.

Optimum didn’t just take the ID number from the FCC email which stated I was actually eligible, no, of course the fuck not, they wanted their own fucking documentation.  So after giving them my account number, proof of address, SSI letter, State ID card, Medicaid cards, Medicare cards, PSEG bill and SS number plus my NJ Transit discount card, I was finally able to apply.  

Now, I have to wait 5 business days to see if I’ve been approved, you know, if I’m poor enough to get this “benefit”. Never mind the fact that in this day and age, internet is a necessity for school age children.  Literally all their paperwork, grades and everything else is done by email and a phone app.

Internet should have been free or low cost to everyone from the beginning.  Point blank.

Also, it should not be this fucking difficult to prove that I’m poor.  If I have one program, then I already had to prove to that particular program that I am poor.  I literally don’t qualify for any of them if I make over the now 21K a year for a household of two. (Dino’s dad counts him… four freaking kids, damn).  And let’s not forget that the below federal poverty level income I receive is from the government itself! I had to go to their government appointed doctor who had to make sure I wasn’t faking my lack of knee cartilage and they have the nerve to pay me a few thousand less than that 21K.  Go figure.

Now, I am tech savvy.  Somewhat.  I’m being generous.

But what about the elderly, the mentally handicapped, and general person who is just plain old clueless when it comes to computers.  How do they apply for this program?  They are going to be assed out because if I was getting frustrated at not being able to upload my many documents, I can’t imagine the frustration they might experience.  Helplessness too, and they may just in the end give up, because it’s too damn hard and that 50 bucks ain’t even worth it anyway.

But 50 dollars a month is a lot of money.  That’s extra groceries for my kids, a new pair of shoes for my son.  Hell, I’m fucked if my phone breaks, I literally can’t buy a new one even if I had an extra 50 in my pocket every month.

They have to make things like this easier.  The government has all our information.  They don’t need to double check and verify.  It’s all right there at their fingertips.  Once again, this is a program designed to keep poor folks poor.

So, maybe next week I’ll have free internet from now on.  Maybe not.  Either way, the bill is still going to be paid.

But it shouldn’t be this hard.

💻