'Greatest challenge' to closing digital divide is uncertainty about ACP, advocates warn

Whether or not the US closes its digital divide may come down to the fate of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP): the $14.25 billion program currently subsidizing broadband by $30/month for over 15.7 million households (up to $75 on tribal lands). That's the view of the National Urban League (NUL). The NUL zeroed in on uncertainty about the future of the ACP as the "greatest challenge before us." At present, the ACP – which was passed and funded in a package of $65 billion for broadband through the 2021 Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act – is projected by some estimates to run out of money as soon as 2024. "Failure to extend ACP will devastate the 15 million households and counting that already benefit from or are seeking to enroll in this program and will threaten their ability to thrive in the digital age," said the National Urban League in a letter responding to Senator John Thune's (R-SD) inquiry about the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and other federal broadband matters. "That, in and of itself, is a disaster for our country economically and socially, but the potential discontinuation of ACP will also cause a great inefficiency in the BEAD program." If the ACP isn't reauthorized, there is also a risk of the federal government "overpaying for broadband deployments," resulting in federal dollars "funding deployments to significantly fewer unserved and underserved homes and businesses." "That reduction in the states' ability to meet the Congressional goal of closing the digital divide will not be due to the misconduct of any grantee or state but because Congress had not made its intention clear about a critical financial input to the models that the private sector uses to apply for BEAD funding."