The Affordable Connectivity Program: A Need-to-Have for Closing the Digital Divide

In the final days of 2020, Congress approved a COVID-relief package that included $3.2 billion for the Federal Communications Commission to establish the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program to help households that were struggling to afford broadband. The program was up-and-running by spring, and the public’s response was overwhelming. It immediately became clear that demand for this program was going to outlast the pandemic, and Congress responded with a longer-term solution to the broadband affordability challenge. As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021, Congress approved over $14 billion to extend the Emergency Broadband Benefit, and changed its name to the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Today, the ACP has more than 23 million subscribers. There’s no denying that demand for ACP support is high. But absent additional funding from Congress, the ACP will run out of funding after April 2024. To help us fully understand what is at stake if the ACP does not receive additional funding, in December 2023, the FCC conducted a survey of ACP subscribers. The survey was designed to provide deeper insights into whether participants would have been online without ACP, the type of connectivity they would have had without ACP, how they are using their ACP-supported service, and how the end of the program would impact them. The topline finding of this survey is that for the overwhelming majority of ACP recipients, the monthly subsidy is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. More than two-thirds of subscribers had inconsistent connectivity or zero connectivity at all before they enrolled in ACP. And more than three-quarters of respondents said losing ACP support would disrupt their service or cause them to drop internet service entirely.