SheerID wants to help ACP households pay their bills

With the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) on the line, internet service providers (ISPs) want to ensure their low-income subscribers don’t lose internet access—and that nobody falls through the cracks. Identity verification company SheerID has launched a tool allowing telcos to verify that households are eligible for government assistance programs. With the ACP slated to run out of funding at the end of April, SheerID said its verification tool is a way for carriers to continue reduced rate pricing and promotions to families who need extra financial support. SheerID is in talks with a number of its customers “in terms of transitioning off the ACP program into using our product” for supporting families on government assistance. But as the product just came out, there aren’t any partnerships to announce so far. All told, determining eligibility for low-cost internet plans is going to get a lot less organized if ACP goes away. While the Federal Communications Commission has allowed some ISPs to verify ACP eligibility themselves, consumers applying for ACP have typically gone through the National Verifier, a centralized application system managed by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC).