BEAD Grants and ACP

I’ve heard rumors for years that the policymakers in DC never expected the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) to be permanent. The expectation of the original architects of the plan was that ISPs would bow to public pressure to fill the void when ACP ran dry. However, the giant ISPs are not likely to self-fund the discounts and smaller ISPs can’t afford to do so. I’ve seen some recent articles that argue that the Federal Communications Commission could employ the Universal Service Fund. Even if the FCC is willing to consider this, its normal processes are slow and cumbersome and it’s hard to think it could happen much before the end of 2024. But there doesn’t seem to be any talk of the FCC commissioners willing to tackle this. Even if ACP gets renewed later in 2024, it will be a mess. The process of onboarding customers to ACP is cumbersome, and it seems likely that every customer will need to start with a fresh application. A lot of customers are likely not going to jump through the hoops a second time to get the discount.