Dialing Up Recession/Joblessness Relief: How Much Would America's Poor Benefit From Wider Access to the Federal Lifeline Progra

Data to Detail Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Personal Income Lost  in States – Including CA, CO, HI, MT, NE, ND, OK, SD, VT and WY – Without Access to Program for Their Poorest Citizens.

WASHINGTON, D.C.//NEWS ADVISORY///A groundbreaking study of more than 5,000 poor and near-poor Americans already benefiting from the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline Assistance program, to be released Thursday (February 10, 2011), will show how many additional billions of dollars in personal income could be generated if federally subsidized cell phone service was made more widely available to the millions of eligible Americans not yet participating in it.

Based on a major national survey of Lifeline users by Infogroup/Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) International and released by the independent New Millennium Research Council (NMRC), the new study by telecommunications access expert Nicholas P. Sullivan is a first-of-its-kind effort to evaluate the Lifeline Assistance program's current and potential economic benefits (including the ability to find and keep jobs) in the context of wireless operators providing free cell phone service to eligible individuals who cannot afford them.  

The Sullivan report gauges how much personal income poor and near-poor Americans who cannot afford cell phones are losing in the 15 states – including  California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming -- not yet open to free Lifeline-eligible wireless service.    

Speakers on the phone-based news event at 1:30 p.m. EST on February 10, 2011 will be:

• Nicholas P. Sullivan,  fellow at the Center for Emerging Market Enterprises at the Fletcher School,  co-chair of The Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion, and author of You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World's Poor to the Global Economy (2007).
• Samuel A. Simon, senior fellow,  New Millennium Research Council; and
• Graham Hueber, senior project manager, ORC International.

Nicholas Sullivan authored the March 2008 NMRC-published report, "Cell Phones Provide Significant Economic Gains for Low-Income American Households," which concluded that providing cell phones to the 38 percent of America's 45 million poorest households now without them -- including millions of seniors, Hispanics, African-Americans and rural residents -- could help them get work or make money worth $2.9 billion or more.  

TO PARTICIPATE:  You can join this live, phone-based news conference (with full, two-way Q&A) at 1:30 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 10, 2011 by dialing 1 (800) 860-2442 in the U.S.  Ask for the "Lifeline economic impact report" news event.

CAN'T PARTICIPATE?:  A streaming audio recording of the news event will be available on the Web as of  5 p.m. EST on February 10, 2011 at http://thenmrc.org.  

CONTACT:   Ailis Aaron Wolf at (703) 276-3265 or aaaron@hastingsgroup.com.

Launched in 1999, the New Millennium Research Council is a Washington, D.C. think tank. The work of NMRC focuses primarily on the fields of telecommunications and technology. The contributors to NMRC reports develop workable, real-world solutions to the issues and challenges confronting policymakers. For more information, please visit http://www.thenmrc.org on the Web.

/PRNewswire-USNewswire -- Feb. 9, 2011/

SOURCE New Millennium Research Council, Washington, D.C. and Nicholas P. Sullivan, Medford, MA.