FCC hires communications firm to conduct ACP 'consumer education plan'

The Federal Communications Commission is contracting communications firm Porter Novelli Public Services (PNPS) to carry out a "consumer education plan" in order to broaden public awareness of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The FCC detailed its plans to work with PNPS in a contract opportunity posted on Sam.gov, with an award date of February 1, 2023. The FCC "requires a contractor capable of providing a variety of services that will assist and complement our ongoing work of educating eligible households to enroll in the ACP," reads the notice. While an estimated 48 million households qualify for the ACP, just 15.5 million homes are enrolled. "Thus, a significant number of qualifying households have not yet enrolled in the ACP. Extensive outreach by a wide range of outreach partners is therefore needed to help maximize the potential impact of the ACP." Concerns about under-enrollment in the ACP have been raised for months. Various groups and stakeholders have pointed to issues ranging from a lack of awareness to complicated signup processes to a lack of multilingual educational materials and well beyond. PNPS was the only vendor to submit a proposal and was awarded that contract on December 6, 2022. The firm is now being hired by the FCC to execute the consumer education plan.