Digital Divide

The likely expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program, the largest ever connectivity support program for low-income households, invites a discussion about the impact of the program and what alternative policy tools are available to promote digital equity. This study offers a preliminary assessment of the ACP’s goal to promote fixed broadband among lowincome households.

Electric cooperatives serve 92% of the nation’s persistent poverty counties and are deploying broadband networks in many hard-to-reach parts of the country. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association conducted a survey in the summer of 2023 that showed strong participation in and support for the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program by member co-ops.

The US Congress faces an imminent decision about the future of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and the connectivity it delivers to 23 million households.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel made a final plea to Congress, asking for money to continue a broadband-affordability program that gave out its last round of $30 discounts to people with low incomes in April. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has lowered monthly Internet bills for people who qualify for benefits, but Congress allowed funding to run out. People may receive up to $14 in May if their ISP opted into offering a partial discount during the program's final month.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) unveiled the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act, which contains more than 100 bipartisan bills and puts the 2024 Farm Bill back on track to being signed into law by the end of 2024. The Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act reflects more than two years of bipartisan work on the Senate Agriculture Committee and incorporates more than 100 bipartisan bills and the work of Senators on and off the Committee.

Congress included the ACCESS BROADBAND Act in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 and established the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth (OICG) within the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). On April 30, OICG released its annual report detailing the office's work for 2023. OICG administers broadband programs created by both the Consolidated Appropriations Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Four interconnected core pillars drive OICG’s initiatives, strategy, and key accomplishments:

When the internet was new, people talked a lot about long-haul networks in the United States. That’s because a lot of the early data centers were on the East and West coasts, and they needed to be connected. These days long-haul networks are largely overshadowed by last mile builds. There’s a lot of existing long-haul and middle-mile fiber that can be patched together to create the desired routes for any business.

At least two senators are demanding that a program subsidizing high-speed internet for lower-income families be extended as part of the airline safety bill making its way through the Senate. Sen J.D.

On May 1, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote to Congressional leaders with a final update on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). April was the last month of full funding for the program, which will fully exhaust during May without additional funding from Congress. "If additional funding is not promptly appropriated, the one in six households nationwide that rely on this program will face rising bills and increasing disconnection.

Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, is expected to play a role in the Biden administration’s $42 billion program to bring high-speed internet to every American home, as Washington comes up against some hard math in its effort to build networks reaching the most remote corners of the nation. The growing discussion of using Starlink to fill in coverage gaps is an acknowledgment of just how expensive and challenging it would be to run new internet cables up every mountain and down every valley nationwide.