Affordable Connectivity Program (was Emergency Broadband Benefit Program)

I want to start by thanking the Subcommittee for its decision to provide full funding for the Federal Communications Commission in your Fiscal Year 2024 FSGG bill. The work of the FCC matters. I’d like to highlight some the Commission’s recent work, made possible by your support of our budget, under my leadership. First, the Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, the largest broadband affordability program in our nation’s history, now helps 21 million households pay for high-speed internet service.

A 2020 study found that 18% of people living on tribal lands did not have access to high-speed internet, which far surpasses the 4% of people who live in nontribal areas who lack access. Furthermore, the cost of a monthly internet plan continues to be a challenge for low-income communities nationwide, especially those on tribal lands. While major investments are being made to build the infrastructure needed to deliver broadband access, including on tribal lands, another barrier to everyone actually adopting high-speed internet at home is still prevalent, and that's affordability.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored that access to reliable and affordable high-speed internet is no longer a luxury, and the need to connect all Washingtonians is urgent. Unfortunately, a critical service established to help low-income Americans get online, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), will disappear if Congress refuses to fund the program in 2023.

Connected Nation collaborated with AT&T to explore attitudes toward home broadband service and the Affordable Connectivity Program. Researchers spoke with 1,758 households in five metropolitan areas about their home internet service, awareness of programs that could help make broadband more affordable, and reasons why some households still do not subscribe to high-speed internet. Of those, 453 respondents meet the income eligibility requirement to participate in the ACP; these households are identified as “low-income” in this study.  Among the key findings from this study:

Recon Analytics recently conducted the largest survey run to date to assess whether consumers eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) are actually enrolling and if so, what they are using their ACP funds for. We asked 29,141 ACP-eligible Americans if they use ACP, and, if so, for what. The big question inside the Beltway is whether funding the ACP is a good use of taxpayer dollars. The ReconAnalytics survey indicates that if Congress is interested in seeing itself reelected, extending the ACP funding might be a good idea.

In June, the Biden administration allocated $42.45 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding among states—the largest single pot of federal broadband spending in our country’s history. Biden officials at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) made these allocations despite repeated requests from lawmakers and communities across the country to first improve the data underlying NTIA’s funding decisions.

According to a report in February from the policy research firm Public Policy Associates, 2.1 million more children had broadband access in 2021 than 2019, following efforts at the local, state and federal levels to narrow the digital divide for online education during COVID-19 school closures.

A Q&A with the New York City (NYC) Office of Technology & Innovation’s Brett Sikoff centered on increasing broadband accessibility via the city's Big Apple Connect program. The program has delivered free high-speed internet to 220 public housing developments across the city: that’s over 300,000 New Yorkers who now have access to the internet for free.

As a full-time law student, I spend much of my day online doing schoolwork and sometimes taking classes. Many of my finals are take-home exams that require an internet connection. If not for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), I would have to take these classes and exams at the library or a coffee shop, where the environment could be very disruptive.