What the hell? This is soo not right, a cell phone is a luxury not a necessity.

Solution =
If you have a job you should be able to purchase some type of insurance through your service provider that would cover your bill in the instance you lose your job.

Before long what will be the point of working?

w/ the way things r these days a cell is a necessity - i have no landline so yes i luv my virgin mobile cell - w2g virgin mobile - u r so awesome - i'm a single mom - this news is great - when is this service comin 2 illinois - again w2g virgin mobile

hey virgin mobile yu shud like have a week where yu give out 100 or even 50 free fones... pay as yu go, im jusss saying i really dnt care i have a black berry storm 2, i just wnt to look out for peoplke wit no fone

Proper grammar will get you far people.

A cell phone is NOT a necessity. If you have no land line oh well. I bet you people believe if you have no car and can't afford it someone should let you drive one for free also.

Many people have disconnected there Land lines due to economics of a Cell phone. Why pay for 2 lines? A CELL PHONE IS NO LONGER CONSIDERED A LUXURY. A phone is a PHONE.
Everyone needs a phone of some type. Be it Land line, cell Phone, VOip. Clearly you have never been in a position where you have Doctor's appointments, or JOB interviews, working with staffing agencies Or applying for assistance. When you are out of work, You life does not simply stop. Your Bills continue and how are all these Various places I mentioned suppose to reach you? When you have NO internet, No phone, NO job, combined with Health issues or limited mobility, Plus a limited Income to no income. Very little money to work with as to Eat, keep your power on and heat. Operational cost of your vehicle ( GAS, insurance) Driving to all of these places just to see if there is Work available, or if you can get assistance, or to seek medical treatment Becomes an issue. You have clearly never been in this situation and from your pompous response see this New program as a HAND OUT of your precious tax dollars. OPEN YOUR EYES there are Single, educated people desperately looking for work, Some have families and children to work into this equation. Your comment implies Jobs are plentiful and it's just people being lazy. I find it offensive, pompous,insensitive and ignorant. Just another short sighted person who has no idea.

Straight talk and Boost have about the best pricing.
Straight talk is powered by Verizon, but works on the trac phone network. For $30 a month, you can get 1000 mins, plus 1000 texts messages, 30mb web access and the standard features of all phones. or for 45, you can go for unlimited use.I consider it a blessing to know exactly what my bill is going to be every month. Boost is 50 for unlimited text, minute usage, Web access, direct connect and works on the Sprint Nextel network.

For those of us who are Extremely tight budgets due to circumstances out of our control and simply not being lazy. Any person who says a CELL phone is a Luxury,is not being realistic. Lets take your phone away and see what you do...

I see 3rd graders with Cell phones ( which I do not agree with other than for Emergency use.
Prepaid Phones Charge the customers Much more than those under a contract and many spend more money per month and per call than if they were under contract with a large carrier. The standard Cell bill runs between 80 to 100 a month for a single line. Sure you can get cheaper plans, but Overage cost, surcharges ( some charge 1.00 a day regardless if it's used) It's simple economics and streamlining all task to meet your budget. Or at least try to. I just find these comments so insensitive, this program is a great thing as are the 2 options I listed above. a phone is a phone.
We all need one. The cheaper the better.

As far as keeping your cell phone when you are unemployed see my previous post. Pay some sort of insurance on your monthly phone bill to keep your phone in case of a job loss. Since this isn't an option right now, budget your unemployment money to pay for your phone bill if you deem it a necessity. The problem with just giving anyone a phone that cant afford it will be that people who NEVER even had a phone to begin with (moochers of the govt') will now be getting phones. This creates the mentality of well if we keep getting a hand out why should we work.

Also by the way a Necessity would be defined as:
Food, Shelter and Clothing.
A luxury would be defined as something you can live without to ensure you have your necessities.

In this day and age communication or access to modern communication mediums have become a necessity. Look at impoverished areas of the US and you find a common thread of a lack of a communnications infrastructure. Food, Shelter, and Clothing are all well and good. What happens if you do not have a means to get information as to where to obtain said assistance?

Boost and Straight Talk have both cracked open the closed, overpriced wireless market. For too long, the big 4 have conspired to keep prices artifically high. AT&T Mobility even bowed to the pressure by offering an unlimited plan on a very stripped down version of their network. 2010 should continue to see radical changes as the tier 1 carriers are obviously banking on smart phone service revenue as regular voice/text revenue dries up.

you said earlier that a phone is a luxury ?

Don't give a poor man a fish, give him a fishing rod and teach him how to fish. The point of giving people assistance such as food stamps and cell phones is to help them to get their feet back under them. A lot of people don't realize how much a cell phone can help in this regard. If you read the Sullivan Report you will see that by giving a cell phone to the poor they gain the ability to work by helping them find jobs or freelance services (like a handyman or babysitter). Once they are working they won't need to rely on the government anymore so this is better than simply giving them food because that never ends, once it's eaten they need more and more. Tracfone started this with Safelink and is available in many more states and is completely free.

Harper,

In a perfect world you are absolutely correct, but we don't live in a perfect world.

Virgin Mobile's service is already cheap enough! You can get service for $20 every three months. That comes out to less than $7 a month. Seriously folks, if you can't scrape together $1.54 a week to keep a phone line active, you are beyond helping. This handout stuff doesn't sit right with me.

Why is Virgin giving away free phones to people who are out of work? On top of it, I bet the paying customers are the ones who have to pay for the service in the first place. Virgin is supposed to be offering the newest, trendiest phones, not providing welfare to those who are unemployed. I mean it sounds like it can help some people, but someone has to pay for it, and personally, i don't want to have to pay the bill. I have my own bills to worry about. There is no such thing as a free lunch!

I didn't have a problem with the so-called "Obama Phone."

It seemed reasonable to give poor people a cheap phone and a few minutes a month.

Go find a job. Go to the doctor. Get the car fixed. Whatever.

But now, Virgin Mobile has a new program that gives poor people 200 minutes a month.

FREE!

It's too much!

What's next? Iphones? Blackberries?

Virgin is using taxpayer money extravagantly.

Am I wrong?

200 minutes won't be enough when governemnt offices put you on hold.

Glad your doing well enough to knock on those less fortunate then yourself in these times. I for one have to knock on wood.

My non-profit is working with Burmese refugees who fled ethnic persecution. They come with just the clothes on their back. Most don't speak or read English. For them, a land line is impossible and a cell phone is difficult, because they have no credit or residence history. But communicating with each other is the only way they can get social support, access to friends who can translate for them, or even food. This kind of program would be ideal for them.

Look outside your own circumstances, people. There are good people out there who are having a much tougher time than you are.

i have been on the "top" and i have been on the "bottom" this narrow-minded stance reminds me of the folks that don't waant to pay school taxes because they don't have kids. yet when school days were your day, you would rather ride a bus than walk in the freezing/sweltering heat, or maybe your mommy car pooled. open your narrow eyes and look around.

I think people should have free service stop trying 2 make money off folks.If i had my own phone company everybody will have free service for 5 years and you`ll have 2 paid 2 dollars to get it back on.

about you people comment .. who are you referring to ? what is going to happen to you when YOU HAVE LOST YOUR JOB AND HAVE NO MEANS OF TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION??? OR are you one of those rich nose in the air punks that needs their money taken from them because they get their $ off the backs of people who work hard for their dollars while you sit on your behind twiddling your thumbs?
So sick of peoples ignorance and straight out LACK of INTELLIGENCE when they make a comment .. if you have nothing good to say SHUT IT UP!
do people EVER grow up?
What comes around go back around triple fold tho so you will get your in the end .. hope you have cushioning on your bottom when that comes about!
Have a bless day! ;)

if you dont think that his government shouldn't help its on people when they are the one who put a lot of us out of work then you belong in with the terroist cause as far as i was taugh that america was the place of friends and family all you idots who think your better than every one else your dy will come when you need some one or a program like this one and you will be turned a way charma has its funny ways so i would be more carefull what you say or do judgement waits for everybody it desn't care how much money or belongs you have only what is in your heart

Are you all for real a cell is Not necessity? and is a luxury>?
these services offer a phone NOTHING else no special ring tones or all that fancy stuff They have a limited amount of minutes
for people like myself who is disabled and has to go to doctors and can not drive We can not locate a pay phone ANYWHERE So this is a HUGE help to people like myself.
If not for a perverted creep and I am keeping it clean deciding one day when I came home from work (at a Job I LOVED and went to school for) deciding he wanted to rape and leave me for dead and beating me almost to death i would Still be working that job
i am not laying home sitting back collecting my little 800.00 a month (that supports me and two kids by the way) for the darn Fun of it. I would GLADLY change places with anyone on here You come live with my constant pain and major health issues that NEVER freekin end all because this ONE man and I will Gladly go to work every day and Live my life like that night never happened
Sadly though once you get the list of health issues i am sure you will turn around and run
I used to have to sit and ask people if I could call a cab on their phone or bother the receptionist who acted like I was asking her for a darn kidney just to get a cab Which is hard to do for me as I suffer a horrible distrust of people now and it takes me hours to locate someone to ask
I no longer have to do that I can sit in the office where there are people around and call a cab myself now
You may take these things for granted because you work and have money to have these things i think i at one time may have too Never again Be Happy and Feel Blessed for what you have It can all change in a instant It took one night for me. My kids almost lost their Mother i lost my trust and the life I loved. Oh and he or the blood they gave me in the transfusion yea it gave me Hepatitis G so I also got a death sentence that night He got me in the end.
Thankfully while doing his time he was killed. I only Hope it was a SLOW miserable one and that he felt the Fear and worry that i did while laying on the concrete of that laundry room

You said it!!! Thank you. I am a single mother of two. It is not my fault their dad decided to leave!!! I was working full time and had a 4 year old and was pregnant with my second. After he came it was impossible to afford my car, home, even food and diapers along with daycare so I had to quite my job. I lost everything!!! Now I am in school full time and cant do it all. So what these people are saying is because I am going to school trying to show my kids what hard work is for that my childrens teachers shouldnt be able to get ahold of me if there was an emergency??? A cell phone is a nessecity!!!! For sure!!

Well not all people that get assistance from the government is moochers, things happen and everyone needs help. As as far as having insurance, having insurance is not for if you lose your job you can keep your phone on, I always thought insurance was for if your phone is lost,stolen or broken then it is replaced by a new phone that by the way you still have to pay a fee for. Not to pay your phone bill.

Vurgin mobile has taken out unauthorized funds from my account for over four months, how can I get my money back. I was given a specific amount for my monthly service with a authorization # and more funds are taken out. virgin owes me over $25.00 has this happened to anyone else these is a over the phone payment

get over it!! Low income people deserve some things in life too!! You probably have a cell with all the bells and whistles. I am a working single mom and something like this insures I can keep in touch with my elderly parents and my children. I need a cell not all the extras!!

Yes a cell is a necessity. Want to know Why???? How about no longer being able to find a payphone! People who think they have to have one just to impress their friends are responsible for that because now no one needs a payphone and the ones who would still use a payphone for their needs, cant find one!!!

We didn' have a phone and had car trouble. A man who just had stents put in his heart had to walk about two miles in over 100 degree weather to call his son. I guess you resent this person for getting a phone. I hope that you never have to walk in the heat like he did. There are some of us who have a heart and pray for people like you, even the ignorant ones.