A Preliminary Evaluation of the ACP Program

The Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a means-tested federal program launched in January 2022 to support broadband connectivity among low-income households in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The expiration of the ACP benefit, the largest ever consumer support program for telecommunication services in U.S. history, invites a discussion about the impact of the program and what alternative policy mechanisms exist to promote equitable access to broadband. This report finds that eligible individuals are more likely to have home broadband than comparable ineligible individuals, with stronger effects for having any type of Internet connection than for having high-speed (wireline) broadband. Positive impacts on labor force participation and employment are observed for women (but not men), and the effect appears to be driven by an increase in remote work arrangements. Broadly speaking, the results suggest that the positive impact of ACP goes beyond first-order effects on adoption, as the program helped lower-income workers adapt to the expansion of non-traditional labor arrangements in the aftermath of the pandemic.