May 2024

Some 23 million households receive broadband subsidies through the Affordable Connectivity Program, which is more than the number on food stamps. Households qualify if they earn 200% or less than the poverty line or participate in other welfare programs such as Medicaid. This includes relatively affluent households with public-school students in localities like New York City that provide universal free school meals. Broadband providers have said in recent earnings calls that they don’t expect to lose many subscribers once the program ends.

The likely expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program, the largest ever connectivity support program for low-income households, invites a discussion about the impact of the program and what alternative policy tools are available to promote digital equity. This study offers a preliminary assessment of the ACP’s goal to promote fixed broadband among lowincome households.

AT&T is the first carrier to give customers the choice to purchase enhanced data connectivity for real-time responsiveness with the introduction of AT&T Turbo on May 2. Built to support high-performance mobile applications, like gaming, social video broadcasting and live video conferencing, with optimized data while customers are on the go. AT&T Turbo allows users the choice to optimize their network when they want by adding additional network resources to their mobile data connection.