Sources & Methodology

Provider and support records, mobile plans, internet packages and carrier-store snapshots are kept as separate datasets. Store snapshots are incomplete and do not constitute a verified national directory.

Original eligibility guidance uses USAC’s How to Qualify, Supporting Documents, How to Apply and About Lifeline pages. The federal income table is for 2026 and was checked September 5, 2026. Household and ongoing-benefit guidance was checked September 6, 2026. State supplements are outside that table.

Original device and switching guidance references T-Mobile’s Bring Your Own Phone information and the FCC’s phone-number porting guide, checked September 5–6, 2026. General checklists and explanatory examples are editorial content, not account-specific advice.

Official carrier pages checked September 6, 2026: Assurance Wireless’s Lifeline overview, Access Wireless’s location-gated enrollment page, ASTAC’s assistance programs, and T-Mobile’s current plan page. An official-page check does not verify every field in the collected carrier record. ASTAC’s dated standards and the distinction between Essentials and Essentials 2.0 remain explicit.

Collected source observations are not current-offer verification. Conflicting prices, historical ACP groups and closed or held store records are excluded from the directory.

State associations do not prove address availability. Nearby-store distances are calculated from collected coordinates and are straight-line estimates.