A Florida company is seeking permission from state regulators to offer free wireless telephone service to tens of thousands of low-income Utahns.

Advocates for the state's poor, though, are wary. They are concerned that although the TracFone Wireless Inc. program may be a valuable service for some, such as the homeless, it could leave other Utahns who sign up overpaying for service.

"We are worried that the offer of a 'free phone and free minutes' may be so enticing that the long-term costs might be overlooked for the short-term benefits," said Sonya L. Martinez of the Salt Lake Community Action Program.

TracFone's offer is simple, according to documents filed with the Utah Public Service Commission.

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Making money • The company promises to provide a free wireless handset and 67 minutes a month of free calling time. Any unused minutes roll over to the next month. And, any additional calling time must be pre-purchased as a 100-minute block for 20 cents a minute.

"Our product can be of immense value to thousands of low-income Utahns," said TracFone Director of Government Affairs Jose Fuentes. He also points to the unemployed, who could benefit from having access to a phone that potential employers could call with job offers.

TracFone will be able make money off of its wireless service in Utah by selling calling time beyond the 67 minutes provided for free each month, and by taking advantage of state and federal Lifeline Assistance Programs to help cover its costs.

Those Lifeline programs, which are funded by a special surcharge on everyone's monthly telephone bill, provide more than $13 a month to help Utahns pay for phone service who earn less than 135 percent of the federal poverty limit, or $14,621 annually for a single person and up to $49,964 for a family of eight.

Also, anyone who receives food stamps, federal housing assistance or low-income home energy assistance can qualify for LifeLine assistance.

Although Lifeline programs in Utah have been used in the past to pay for land-line phones provided by carriers such as Qwest and the state's rural telephone companies, TracFone intends to provide wireless service under permission granted by the Federal Communications Corp.

The company, however, still must receive permission from Utah's top utility regulators at the PSC to offer its services here.

Fuentes said TracFone offers its "SafeLink" wireless Lifeline service in 26 states. "We're eager to enter Utah," he said, estimating that only 32,000 of the approximately 145,000 eligible households in the state are taking advantage of the Lifeline programs.

Cheryl Murray, a telecommunications analyst with the state's Office of Consumer Services, said her agency "in general" does not favor TracFone's program over worries that it will serve the needs of only a very small subset of low-income customers.

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Counting minutes • "Typically people need more than 67 minutes of airtime to conduct their normal communications," she said in testimony filed with the PSC. "(This) office has concerns about the affordability of purchasing additional airtime at 20 cents per minute, through prepaid calling cards."

Martinez at the Salt Lake Community Action Program, also in testimony filed with the PSC, put numbers to that same argument.

The Utah Department of Workforce Services estimates that its average call wait time in February was nine minutes, she said. The total wait-and-talk time was 16 minutes and phone interviews for those seeking unemployment benefits could last 20 minutes to 40 minutes.

"Someone could exhaust all of their monthly SafeLink minutes in one day of calls to the Department of Workforce Services," she said.

Martinez also argued that if someone purchased an additional 100 minutes of airtime from TracFone for $20, they still would get a substantially reduced number of minutes when compared with a traditional Lifeline service, which would cost half that amount after the state and federal discounts are applied.

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A benefit or a concern? • TracFone's Fuentes, though, see benefits where others see concerns. Because its customers must pay in advance for additional minutes, they have the ability to control or limit their charges. "And our services will be as reliable as any other wireless providers serving the Utah market," Fuentes said.

Murray in her testimony told the PSC that the Office of Consumer Services would like to see TracFone's program modified.

She points to other states where TracFone operates, such as Washington, which required TracFone to charge 10 cents for each additional minute.

The PSC will conduct a hearing Monday on TracFone's application. If approved, TracFone plans to begin an advertising campaign to draw attention to its Safelink product, and Murray will request that the PSC require the company to submit that campaign for approval.

"One of the difficulties ... is that we're entering new territory by comparing services that are very different," Martinez earlier told the PSC. "TracFone is requesting the ability to become certified to offer a product that is substantially different from Lifeline services that have been offered in the past, and so we are essentially trying to compare incomparable products."

steve@sltrib.com