OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — "They couldn't get phones. Their phones went out," said Cricket Wireless store manager Titeeanna Worthington.
She was remembering the difficulty her customers went through during the height of the pandemic.
She said she saw customer after customer dealing with the hardships of the pandemic and losing their main connection to family and friends.
"Because of the area we are in, we have a lot of low-income customers and I love all of my customers. That is why I work in these locations. I want to say about 60-70% of our customers were impacted," she said.
Industry giants Walmart, AT&T, and Cricket Wireless have joined forces to help people in underserved communities get their cell phone and internet service bills.
Worthington said, "They can come into a Cricket location they feel comfortable with, call customer service or go onto our website. There is information there as well. I encourage all customers to come into the store so we can actually see what they need to do — if they are missing information and we need to help them — because it is way faster"
The program is done in conjunction with the temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB). If you are already on a financial assistance program such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Medicaid, you should automatically qualify.
Once approved, people can visit their local store and pick from select prepaid high-speed data plans that let them pay just $5-10 a month or nothing at all.
"It feels awesome to me. I love Cricket. I love my job and I love working with my customers. Our logo is going the extra smile, so being able to help customers when I come to work every day makes me feel good," added Worthington.
If you need a new phone, and it's an EBB-approved phone, the phone is also free.
For more information, visit this website.
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