Level of Government

For years, the federal government has avoided any attempt to resolve a long-standing problem: how to sustain funding for the Universal Service program. But perhaps that could change now that the lack of funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has gained substantial mindshare with the American public. Some stakeholders believe both problems can be solved by funding the ACP through the Universal Service Fund (USF) and expanding the types of entities that are required to pay to support the program.

Congress inserted an interesting requirement into the bill that reauthorizes the funding for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Both the House and Senate added language that would require that a national broadband plan be created that would try to put the Federal Communications Commission, the NTIA, US Department of Agriculture, and other agencies on the same page.

On May 2, 2024, New Street Research Policy Advisor and Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Blair Levin testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband at a hearing entitled The Future of Broadband Affordability.

As expected, broadband industry lobby groups have sued the Federal Communications Commission in an attempt to nullify net neutrality rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. Lobby groups representing cable, telecom, and mobile Internet service providers sued the FCC in several US appeals courts.

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) awarded $1,481,167 to help Wisconsin residents access essential telecommunications services. The PSC awarded a total of 24 grants from the 2024 rounds of the Nonprofit Access Grant Program, the Lifeline Outreach Grant Program, and the Telemedicine Equipment Grant Program, all of which are funded by the Universal Service Fund (USF). The USF was created to promote and assist with the availability and affordability of telecommunications services in Wisconsin. 

 The Affordable Connectivity Program provided a way to bridge the digital divide for over 23 million US households, but congressional inaction has led to its unfortunate end. The consequences will be devastating. Soon, many underserved families in rural and urban communities alike will have to make the difficult sacrifice of losing access to telehealth services, online learning, employment opportunities, and so much more. Reliable broadband is essential to our way of life and economy. Without it, millions of families relying on the ACP for internet access will be left out and left behind.

Residential fixed broadband internet access in the United States (US) has long been distributed inequitably, drawing significant attention from researchers and policymakers. This paper evaluates the efficacy of the Connect America Fund (CAF), a key policy intervention aimed at addressing disparities in US internet access. CAF subsidizes the creation of new regulated broadband monopolies in underserved areas, aiming to provide comparable internet access, in terms of price and speed, to that available in urban regions.

In 2019, the Vermont Department of Public Service found that nearly a quarter of Vermont addresses lacked service that met the then federal benchmarks for broadband speeds (25/3 megabits per second, or Mbps). The COVID-19 pandemic only underscored the urgent need in a state that has consistently ranked near the bottom of connectivity comparisons over the past decade. Vermonters saw a lack of interest from private providers to invest in the sparsely populated rural state and recognized that communities needed to address the problem themselves.

“It is incredibly disappointing and just plain shameful that one of the most successful bipartisan programs to close the digital divide has lapsed. Every Congressional district in the country had constituents benefiting from this program, and still, Congress failed to deliver the funding needed to ensure that over 23 million households won’t lose connectivity. While the efforts made by the program's most ardent supporters in both Chambers were commendable, the resulting lapse of ACP makes it clear that the Congressional appropriations process is ill-suited for funding affordable broadband.

At the end of May, the Affordable Connectivity Program, which helps over 23 million low-income households access high-speed internet at home, officially ran out of funding. This lapse occurs despite strong support from the White House and lawmakers of both parties, as well as the backing of four out of five Americans. The focus must now shift to delivering a long-term fix. Fortunately, the solution is staring us in the face.