Free Cell Phones!?!

I keep seeing these commercials for free government supported cell phones. I'm sorry, but I'm a bit confused. Does the government pay people to get landlines? I guess you could use your welfare benefits to pay for a landline, but why is it that a cell phone is seen as a "necessity"? Sure, on the commercials they show a woman who's car has broken down "on the road" to pick up the kids from school and she of course needs the government cell phone to place a call for help... (a) where's the school bus? (b) what if this were 1976 before portable cell phones were commonplace, would we expect the government to pay for you to place a call when your car is broken down? Cell phones are great but why do we think people can't live without them? Is there going to be a special program to subsidize people's cable bills? (I know, we've already got the government paying for people's upgrades to digital!) Do people who are on welfare get free driver's licenses, free car registrations and/or free car insurance? Isn't being able to drive (in order, presumably to get to a job) more important that being able to make a call? Food stamps, subsidized housing-- those are things people need to live. It seems that human beings have needed food and shelter for thousands of years. Cell phones and digital cable? Not so much.