7.1 Million Households Enrolled in Emergency Broadband Benefit, Adoption Varies Significantly by State

The federal government launched the Emergency Broadband Benefit in February 2021 to provide low-income households with a $50 monthly discount on their internet bill as part of a multi-pronged approach to reduce the digital divide, which is a function of both access to a wired high-speed internet service provider and the affordability of service. According to the Universal Service Administrative Company, enrollment in the Emergency Broadband Benefit reached 7.1 million households in November 2021 (up from 6.1 million in October). That is incredible growth, however as many as 30 million additional households likely qualify but are missing out. We wanted to understand how and where the EBB is being adopted across the US and found that adoption varies greatly by city, state and region. Understanding adoption is extremely important as Congress recently passed the Affordable Connectivity Program, which is replacing the EBB in 2022.  Our point of view is that additional marketing of the Affordably Connectivity Program, especially in under-enrolled regions, is the best way to reduce the affordability component of the digital divide. For this report we estimated the number of qualifying households by zip code and compared it to adoption data released by the USAC.

[Tyler Cooper is the Editor-in-Chief at BroadbandNow.]