Buying Votes With The Taxpayers Money 1 million Ohioans using free phone program The size of the program in the state â and profits to the increasing number of cellphone companies involved â has exploded in recent months, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of program data. The program in Ohio cost $26.9 million in the first quarter of 2012, the most recent data available, versus $15.6 million in the same timeframe in 2011. Compared to the first quarter of 2011, the number of people in the program nearly doubled to more than a million. http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/subsidized-cell-phone-program-nearly-doubles-in-oh/nRDqC/