An Assessment of the Affordable Connectivity Program: Keep it, Scrap it, or Modify it?

The Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program has the potential to be a socioeconomic equalizer that helps close the gap between those Americans with access to broadband and those without. So far, the ACP has proven remarkably effective at making that happen. Despite only existing for over a year and a half, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) calculates that nearly 20 million people have already enrolled in the program at a cost of just $14.2 billion in funding. The ACP also generates important cost savings for the government itself, reducing costs to function ecause online connectivity enables the type of upward mobility that is needed to reduce American reliance on costly social welfare programs. Americans who enroll in the ACP are less likely to need as much federal assistance in the long run because the program itself encourages self-sufficiency by providing more opportunities for career advancement such as through online GED programs and college courses. However, most ACP cost savings can be attributed to the program’s market-friendly framework, which distributes funding directly to families. Unlike many traditional government federal aid programs that provide subsidies to corporations in the hope that they will keep rates low, the ACP provides families a broadband voucher that can be used to select the technology and service provider of their choice. Vouchers give each household a unique degree of flexibility unavailable to them with most other programs and ensure the subsidy is well spent. As such, the ACP serves as a rare example of a government program that is truly technology neutral and provides consumers with genuine freedom of choice.