If you're a customer on the Lifeline free government cell phone program then you now have the ability to switch your provider anytime you wish. The government body governs the free government cell phone program is called USAC and they have eliminated the pot freeze that is caused so much problem for consumers.

This is excellent news for anyone that is on the Lifeline free government cell phone plan. Lifeline companies, on the other hand, will find this a little less desirable.

The USAC.org website indicates:

On March 19th, 2018 the pork fries rule for the Lifeline Program was eliminated. The National Lifeline Accountability Database NLAD removed Port freezes. Any customer that had a port freeze has had this restriction removed. administrative port freezes are not implemented by the USAC. If you're an NLAD user you should not encounter a port freeze error message.

Lifeline.law explains how this all works for free government cell phone customers:

Starting March 19th, 2018, the rules for the lifeline Port freeze will be eliminated. These rules took place originally in December 2016 and they precluded any customer from transferring to another provider if:

• They had a Lifeline voice subsidy for 60 days
• They had a Lifeline Broadband subsidy for 12 months

The FCC determined less than a year later that the port freeze rules limited a Lifeline consumers ability to seek more competitive offerings and to receive services that were better in line with their needs. This also did not promote competition. NLAD As part of the rule elimination will remove the port freeze constraints and any customer in a port free status on that date is going to have their restrictions lifted.

Many individuals have indicated that the 60-day or the 12-month Port freeze left them in many difficult situations. In some cases, their service provider for Lifeline didn't offer services in their particular area. They had a free government cell phone but they had no cell phone service. Customers wanted to get away from companies who had customer service and service that was very poor. They couldn't do this because they were stuck within the port freeze.

Cell phone companies will not think the elimination of the port freeze is good news. They spend money and time enrolling new customers and then send them out a free government cell phone. These new rules will allow individuals to switch to a different company whenever they wish so the company that sent them the original cell phone will be out a customer.

For Lifeline customers, the elimination of the port freeze is excellent news because they will be able to dictate how they can use their free government cell phone and won't be restricted to poor service or companies that take advantage of them.