Many providers are offering free or low-cost internet service from low-income families or struggling people in this Covid Pandemic. Tracfone Wireless is among those MVNOs that offer its customers prepaid service. It also participated in the Emergency Broadband program. Today, we’ll talk about the Tracfone Emergency Broadband Benefit.
Tracfone starts its journey in the ’90s. It is also among the original prepaid cell phone plan providers, which started then. Although the company is still getting better and more robust, it’s lost its previous Dominance in the market.
Usually, the prepaid plans of the company are not for everyone. But today’s focus isn’t on its prepaid plans, are they? When it comes to Emergency Broadband Benefit, they are meant to be simple and barely have special features, let alone expensive features.
The Tracfone ebb program is offered by the central government and executed by various providers. You need to be qualified to get the benefits of the program. This article will let you know everything you need to know about the Tracfone Emergency Broadband Benefit. But, let’s start with.
What Is the Tracfone Emergency Broadband Benefit program?
As I already said, the program is an initiative by the federal government, focused on helping the people severely affected by the Covid’s Atrocity.
It offers internet to them at an affordable price, which enables households to continue their jobs, critical healthcare services, virtual classrooms, and so on.
This program is specifically for the Covid period and was started after the government started 2019 after the covid hit. The Emergency Broadband Benefit will offer you a $50 discount per month towards broadband service for eligible households and $75 each month for the qualifying Tribal lands. The qualified household will also get a single-time $100 discount on purchasing a laptop, desktop, or tablet from certain providers.
But, there are also quite a few restrictions there. Most importantly, what you keep in mind is that the only person per household is qualified for their service.
You can sign up for the program in three different ways. They include the following.
How to Qualify for the Emergency Broadband Benefit program
As you already understood, the program isn’t for everyone. You really have to be in a financial condition that you can’t afford an internet bill, then you can apply for the program.
As for qualification, there are several ways to be eligible for the Tracfone Emergency Broadband Benefit program. Here are the following eligibility criteria you need to meet –
- Your household income must be below or at 135% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.
- If you are participating in some particular assistance programs – SNAP, Medicaid, or Lifeline.
- If your children receive benefits under the reduced-price school lunch or the school breakfast program.
- If you received a Federal Pell Grant within the current award year.
- If you had a significant loss of income because of job loss or furlough after the first lockdown.
- If you meet the eligibility criteria for the provider’s existing low-income or COVID-19 program.
Once you meet one or multiple qualification requirements, you can apply for the program benefits. But, there is no guarantee that you will be sure to receive the benefits as there are many applicants that the government can handle.
What Is the TracFone Emergency Broadband Benefit?
As I mentioned earlier, the Emergency Broadband Benefit, EBB, is a program that allows those seriously affected by Covid’19 to benefit from discounted broadband programs.
The users can stay connected to friends and family members. The service is run by the Federal Communications Commission and offered to the beneficiaries via various service providers, including TracFone Wireless.
Therefore, TracFone Wireless Emergency Broadband Benefit is part of the larger Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB). Those using the service at TracFone cannot apply for the benefit from other service providers.
How to apply for the TracFone Emergency Program
It won’t be hard to apply for the program if you meet the requirements. For applying, you need to visit the TracFone and go to the EBB program option.
There, you will see a section asking you to provide a ZIP Code, phone number, and email address. Provide legal information here; if not, you will be banned from the program forever.
After that, you have an option, one for an existing phone number, where you want to receive the benefits, or get a new phone number for the tracfone ebb. From there, Tracfone ebb application guides you to the next steps.
TracFone will send a notification to your number or email address for verification. Besides this, you can also apply from the Federal Communications Commission website.
Applying with the TracFone website is simpler, but sometimes their website goes down because of heavy traffic. If that happens, you can adapt to the other option.
The FCC provides three ways to apply for the Tracfone ebb program:
- You can contact a participating EBB provider directly; they will tell you the application process.
- Or, you can visit Get Emergency Broadband to apply online and find a participating provider around your area. You have to contract with them to get a suitable plan.
- Lastly, call 833-511-0311 to apply via mail or print the copy of the application and send it with all the proof documents to – Emergency Broadband Support Center, P.O. Box 7081, London, KY 40742.
What does the Tracfone Emergency Broadband Benefit offer?
The Tracfone Emergency Broadband Benefit firstly offers you up to a $50 discount each month for the broadband service. The discount you get depends on the package you get from your provider. If your households within the Tribal lands, the discount will be increased to $75 per month.
Moreover, you will get up to a $100 single-time discount on purchasing a desktop computer, tablet, or laptop from some specific providers.
Thus, you can get a somewhat free tablet if they contribute more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase price. But, keep in mind that the service is one time; you can only get a discount for one product.
Also, the emergency broadband benefit Tracfone is limited to one time each month, and only one device per household can get the discount offer. Moreover, there can’t be more than two people from a household getting benefits from the service.
Monthly Plans: TracFone offers various monthly plans, including unlimited talk and text and a specific amount of data. If you can’t finish the given data in one month, it will roll over to the next month. But, for that, you require monthly purchase packages. Here’s the price of monthly packages and data.
- 1 GB per month data for $20.
- 2GB per month data for $25.
- 3GB per month data for $30.
- 8GB per month data for $40.
- 12 GB for a year at $199.
Pay As You Go Plans: These plans allow you to purchase a prepaid airtime card, which contains 30 to 1500 minutes and 300 to 2 G.B. of data for browsing.
FAQs About the Tracfone Emergency Broadband Benefit
If my household Is already receiving benefits from the “LifeLine” program, am I qualified for the EBB?
Emergency Broadband Benefit doesn’t limit to the “Lifeline” program participants. That means you can get both benefits simultaneously.
The Lifeline program offers discounts or even free phone plans along with free phones. On the other hand, EBB offers discounts on broadband.
In comparison, the Lifeline program is better, as it offers Tracfone compatible phones along with discount plans. But, thankfully you won’t be required to choose between them. Even meet requirements for getting EBB with the Lifeline certification.
They overlap and provide you with a better discount each month. But keep in mind, EBB won’t last forever; with the ease of the Pandemic, it will be stopped operating.
Will the EBB program End?
As I already told you, EBB is an emergency initiative from the Federal Government for financially struggling people to continue their job, study, and healthcare online.
So, it’s a temporary service, which will end pretty soon; but the accurate data can’t be said. But, it said that the service will last six months after the end of Covid 19, or when the fund for the program is over.
They will notify you when the service is over through message or email. But you can still continue with the service you subscribed to; however, you have to pay full if you don’t participate in any similar program.
What Are The PrePaid Plans Tracfone offers?
TracFone provides various phone services, along with prepaid cell phone plans and mobile phones. The phone plans are divided into two parts – Monthly plans and Pay As You Go Plans.
Final Verdict
EBB programs are temporary services for financially struggling people to continue their jobs, education, and healthcare. Many prepaid service providers participated in this program. Among them, TracFone is a considerable option, thanks to its rich history and vast network.
If you are eligible for the Tracfone Emergency Broadband Benefit, you can get a discount on the monthly fee. Moreover, after the program is over, you continue with your package as their price is pretty reasonable. That’s all for the Tracfone Emergency Broadband Benefit.
