Affordability/Cost/Price
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Fact Sheet: President Biden Highlights Commitments to Customers by Internet Service Providers to Offer Affordable High-Speed Internet Plans, Calls on Congress to Restore Funding for Affordable Connectivity Program
May 31st is the final day that households will receive any benefit from the Affordable Connectivity Program on their internet bills. Without Congressional action to extend funding for the program, millions of households are now at risk of losing their internet connections.
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As Funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program Ends, Commissioner Starks Urges Congress to Act
Today, the bipartisan Affordable Connectivity Program expires. This will cause real harm to millions of Americans. ACP is the most effective program we have ever had in closing the digital divide. Over 23 million households enrolled in ACP, realizing the benefits of affordable, high-speed broadband. And now we are leaving them behind. Let’s put that 23 million in context. That’s one in six households in the country. Millions of veterans, seniors, families of color, and households with children.
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FCC Brings Affordable Connectivity Program to a Close
On May 31, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote to Congressional leaders to provide an update on the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Due to the expiration of funding, the FCC ended the ACP on May 31, 2024. Chairwoman Rosenworcel acknowledged some of the groups that will be impacted, including seniors, veterans, school-aged children, and Tribal households. The Chairwoman also detailed the steps the FCC has taken to help households adjust to the end of the ACP.
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ACP Transparency Data Collection
The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Economics and Analytics released data related to the price, subscription rates, and plan characteristics of the internet service offerings of participating providers in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. These data were collected through the ACP Transparency Data Collection and are available for download on the FCC’s website at https://www.fcc.gov/affordable-connectivity-program.
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Washington State Digital Equity Dashboard helps highlight digital divide
The Washington State Broadband Office (WSBO) has launched a Digital Equity Dashboard to help everyone understand the digital divide—the gap between those with access to technology, digital literacy skills, and the internet and those without. The dashboard uses data from different sources to help illustrate the impact of the digital divide in Washington. Access, affordability, and digital literacy are crucial elements everyone needs to participate in the economy and daily life today.
Broadband progress is measured by results, not good intentions
The late Congressman John Lewis once prophetically noted that “access to the Internet is the civil rights issue of the 21st century.” In the long struggle to recognize Lewis’ vision and close America’s digital divide, civil rights advocates have repeatedly reminded policymakers of one central truth: progress is measured by results, not good intentions. In 2015, for example, the Federal Communications Commission modernized Lifeline—a decades-old program that had long helped low-income households obtain phone service—to apply to internet service as well. But restrictions blocked customers of
How Althea’s removing the friction of internet payments
No surprise, consumers generally want flexible internet plans. Here’s a company that’s deconstructing the typical billing scheme. Althea is a startup that’s come up with a decentralized internet service that aims to remove the "manual pieces of friction at the last mile” so that rural areas get better access to broadband. The Althea platform is comprised of two core things, CEO Deborah Simpier explained. First, it’s a machine-to-machine payment.
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Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives FY2023 Annual Report
Through the Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives (OMBI), National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) directly addresses the lack of high-speed Internet access, connectivity, adoption, and equity at our nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). OMBI works through these anchor institutions to impact their surrounding anchor communities.
President Biden Wants to Send Billions to Rural America, but This Must Happen First
President Joe Biden regularly emphasizes how the major pieces of legislation he has signed — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — expand opportunities for Americans. This is especially true for rural Americans. Those three laws appropriated billions of dollars — about $464 billion — for many projects that could be particularly relevant to rural communities, allowing them to dream of a different economic future.
1 million NYC households set to lose high-speed internet
The looming expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program could mean the end of high-speed internet access for just under 1 million low-income households in New York City, a new analysis from the Center for an Urban Future shows. The new analysis shows that the federal subsidy program was most popular in East Harlem, a wide swath of the South Bronx, and Long Island City, which contains the country's largest public housing complex in the country.