Is the government’s ACP ‘Week of Action’ a doomed effort?

The US Department of Education, Federal Communications Commission, non-profit group Civic Nation, and broadband operators joined hands to launch a “Week of Action” designed to boost sign-ups for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). But New Street Research’s Blair Levin said that the effort will be futile if Congress doesn’t allocate more funding for the ACP. The Week of Action is designed to push that figure higher and will include sign-up events hosted by operators, housing authorities, and healthcare organizations in several states. But a quick look at the ACP dashboard shows the program has already spent nearly half its funding in the year and a half since its launch. Analysts have already predicted that the ACP will run out of money sometime in 2024 and more enrollees would presumably mean the program will burn through its remaining money faster. At the moment, the prospect of additional funding remains elusive. Levin said the effort to sign up new households for the ACP is “great” but added that “the highest priority ought to be getting a permanent sustainable source of funding or, in the alternative, at least” a temporary extension. Operators who sign new ACP subscribers up today may very well be stuck in the unenviable position of having to send out notices to customers in six or eight months telling them the subsidy has run out and prices are about to go up. In addition to the bad look associated with such a move, disconnecting customers also comes with a financial cost. According to Levin, the fate of the ACP will not just impact customers who are already connected but also influence operator calculations about where to run new connectivity as part of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program.