I’ve seen one of these food stamp phones and no it’s not a glamorous video phone like that ad would imply. It does have a color LCD screen, but that’s occupied by icons and menus, and has no picture video capability. The one I saw was TracFone. It has quirks, like not being able to understand TracFone customer service when you call them (I mean garbledygook is all you hear).
My aunt just got one. She lives on social security. She pays $10 a month for unlimited calls through ATT and they sent her a Samsung smart phone. Nothing works on it but the phone calls. To qualify for the price she had to get rid of her landline. I helped her set it up so I know.
Seems there is more than one program out there, and the quality of the phones do vary. I reject the idea we should be providing these phones. Lifeline land lines are available to folks in need. That’s good enough. Why should we provide a phone for people to use when they’re out shopping? (not to imply that you agreed we should)
Forgot to mention, The phones they receive are not new, they are re-conditioned. The first phone they sent her did not work and we had to package it up and send it back then they sent her another one. The government is contracting with the carriers for this and the people applying don’t know which phone or carrier they will receive til they get it. Her friend received a totally different phone with Verizon as the carrier.