The ACP Helps Millions Afford Internet. It Could Be Gone by Next Year

According to projections from the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, sometime around the middle of 2024, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) will run out of money. The ACP offers monthly subsidies of $30 to $75 to help low-income households pay for home internet. It was initially born out of a pandemic-era program called the Emergency Broadband Benefit, which was replaced by the longer-term ACP when Congress devoted $14.2 billion to the program as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Today, less than $5 billion in funding remains. More than 22 million households are currently enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program, around half of all eligible households. That means around 19 percent of all broadband subscriptions in the US rely on the subsidy. An analysis by the Benton Institute found that the ACP has had a significant impact on broadband adoption, particularly in cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Baltimore, which have some of the highest poverty rates in the nation. Enrollment has also been higher than expected in areas with larger Black and Hispanic populations, and in places with high unemployment, according to an analysis of ACP data by Benton Institute Senior Fellow John Horrigan. While the White House requested an additional $6 billion to keep the router lights on for the ACP through 2024, this is largely a stopgap measure and a far cry from the permanent funding many advocates would like to see.