A Permanent Solution for Connecting Low-Income Families

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has been a transformative force, connecting over 22 million households, but it's in trouble. This proposal would allow this national commitment to continue uninterrupted, bring greater accountability to Big Tech, and create a stable, permanent source of funding that would safeguard the program from the uncertainties of the annual appropriations process. 

• Step One: Maintain Connectivity- Congress needs to immediately provide stop-gap funding to keep the program operational while a permanent fix is put in place.

• Step Two: Modernize Universal Service- The foundation of permanent reform lies in the long overdue modernization of the Universal Service Fund (USF). The USF has been and will continue to be the source of the nation’s commitment to ensuring low-income households, rural Americans, and their health, education, and library facilities all have access to modern communications.

• Step Three: Bring Big Tech to the Table- Funding for both the ACP and USF can be stabilized for the long haul in one fell swoop by bringing Big Tech to the table as long-overdue contributors to the nation’s shared commitment to helping low-income families get – and stay – online. Alphabet (Google’s parent company) alone has a market cap of nearly $2 trillion – roughly twice that of the top 10 companies contributing roughly 77% of all universal service funding combined. Yet Google and others in the Big Tech pantheon don't contribute at all. These dominant Big Tech companies that benefit financially from the connectivity that USF makes possible should contribute.

• Step 4: Streamline and Simplify- A modern funding formula can secure the future of both the ACP and Universal Service programs by spreading the financial and social responsibility more equitably across the internet ecosystem. Once these building blocks are in place, we should merge the ACP into the Universal Service Fund as one collective, coordinated national commitment to connecting the underserved.