Gov. John P. de Jongh Jr. has proclaimed the week of September 14-20 as Lifeline Awareness Week in the Virgin Islands.
In today’s highly interconnected world, telephones provide a lifeline to emergency help and a vital link to government services, community resources, friends and family. Knowing this, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Public Services Commission, the Virgin Islands Telephone Company, and Health and Human Services have joined in a collaborative effort to make telephone service more affordable for the nation’s low-income consumers by providing a discount on the connection fee and monthly charges for local telephone service.
The Link-Up America (Link-Up) and Lifeline Assistance (Lifeline) programs offer tremendous benefits for eligible consumers in America and make basic telephone service more affordable. The program provides a generous discount to consumers on the installation of telephone service in their homes. Consumers should not be without local phone service because they cannot afford it, and therefore the promotion of Link-Up and Lifeline is imperative to ensure that all U.S. citizens have access to affordable basic local telephone service.
The FCC, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA), other State and federal agencies, cities, counties, organizations, and telecommunications companies are committed to increasing awareness about the availability of the Link-Up and Lifeline programs and are encouraging eligible citizens to sign up for them.
Gov. de Jongh calls upon all government agencies, industry leaders and consumer advocates to educate residents about territorial and federal programs for telephone connectivity during National Lifeline Awareness Week and further initiate and promote outreach events during this special week.
