Avoid Sunk Costs By Funding The Affordable Connectivity Program

With the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) on the brink of exhausting its funding and congressional action to secure its future still uncertain, it’s time we have the hard conversation about sunk costs. For ACP, that includes:

• $14.2 billion to help 23 million low-income Americans afford broadband connections each month.
• $66 million in outreach grants to nonprofits, state, and local government, and other entities to establish trust in the program and encourage signups.
• Marketing and outreach campaigns from for-profit companies and community partners.
• $42.5 billion to fund the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which requires states to reach 100% availability of broadband—a daunting prospect without ACP.
• $10 billion for the Capital Projects Fund (CPF), which requires recipients to participate in ACP.

Those investments are working. We are at a troubling crossroads. Proof of concept is clear. Demand for action—from the suppliers and the customers—is high. Yet Congress fails to act. ACP is one of our most useful tools to address affordability issues. To avoid sunk costs and continue our investments in these vital, hardworking communities, we need immediate action from Congress to safeguard affordable access to broadband services for all Americans.