Broadband Industry Lobbyists Offer Recommendations on Affordable Connectivity Program Data Collection

On September 21, 2022, representatives from the USTelecom – the Broadband Association, CTIA, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, and ACA Connects – America’s Communications Association met with staffers in the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics to offer recommendations to maximize the effectiveness of the Affordable Connectivity Program’s (ACP) data collection and to keep it simple, streamlined, and efficient for the benefit of consumers and providers alike. The lobbyists pointed out that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directs the FCC to “issue final rules regarding the annual collection by the Commission of data relating to the price and subscription rates of each internet service offering of a participating provider under the Affordable Connectivity Program . . . to which an eligible household subscribes.” This language, they point out, authorizes an annual data collection focused on two components – price and subscription rates of each ACP offering. It does not authorize the FCC  to require providers to continually submit extensive data for each of the almost 14 million current ACP subscribers, as well as future ACP subscribers. They suggest FCC data collection should capture (1) the non-discounted month-to-month price and (2) the number of subscribers for each internet service offering to which an ACP household subscribes, aggregated at the state level.