ACP Enrollment Performance Tool: Understanding Factors that Play a Role in ACP Enrollment

Recently we launched the Benton Institute’s Affordable Connectivity Program Enrollment Performance Tool, a free resource that helps communities answer the question: “How are ACP sign-ups going?” Using the tool to search 5-digit zip codes delivers two important numbers:  1) how many households have signed up for ACP and 2) the expected number of households enrolled. Comparing expected enrollment to actual enrollment is a measure of performance. In this article, our goal is to help readers better understand the tool’s inner workings and what that means for policymakers. The ACP Enrollment Performance Tool rests on a statistical model that captures individual and community-wide circumstances to explain ACP enrollment at the 5-digit zip code level. The inclusion of community-wide characteristics adds significantly to the tool’s predictive power and offers a more nuanced view of what influences ACP enrollment levels. If ACP enrollment is cast only as an individual decision, then explaining it is relatively simple. The government determines who is eligible, these households demonstrate that they qualify, and then decide whether to undertake the effort to enroll. The reality is much more complex. Many potentially eligible households are unaware of the ACP, a significant number encounter frictions in enrolling, and some harbor suspicions about whether the benefit is “too good to be true.” The availability of trusted information and intermediaries can help smooth the enrollment process, and a household’s community can be a conduit for such trusted information.

[John B. Horrigan is a Benton Senior Fellow and a national expert on technology adoption, digital inclusion, and evaluating the outcomes and impacts of programs designed to promote communications technology adoption and use. Brian Whitacre is Professor and Neustadt Chair in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University, where he studies the role of technology in rural economic development. Hernan Galperin is Associate Professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication where he studies Internet policy and social inequality.​]