Low-income

The purpose of the Arkansas Digital Skills and Opportunity Plan is to outline an actionable path forward to make digital opportunity an economic benefit and reality for all Arkansans. This plan will position the state’s residents to pursue cross-sectoral economic growth through broadband-related, nondeployment activities and enhance workforce development. The draft plan is open for public comment until January 25, 2024. ARConnect has a detailed vision for achieving digital opportunity in Arkansas: 

The Internet powers education and the economy, supports our health and well-being, and connects us to our neighbors and those we love. Four agencies are leading the historic effort to connect the entire nation and provide Internet for All. This case study captures insights from the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). NTIA knows that meaningfully connecting everyone in America requires more than Internet access alone.

Federal Communications Commissioner Anna Gomez, who was confirmed by the US Senate in September 2023, has joined calls to renew funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Nearly 23 million households nationwide rely on the program, which provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. “We are at a critical time for the program and I am dismayed that the commission finds itself with no choice but to initiate the wind down process,” said Commissioner Gomez.

In his annual letter, Bill Gates predicted that the United States is “eighteen to twenty four months away from significant levels of AI use by the general population” and that African countries are just a year or so behind that. The pace of AI development is breathtaking, with generative AI tools like ChatGPT forecast to have an adoption curve steeper than the smartphone.

As the federal government plans to freeze new Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) enrollments next month, the broadband industry has started to think about how that will impact internet service providers and subscribers on the subsidy. New Street Research released a report evaluating the ACP’s impact on Charter. The firm estimated Charter has at least 4.1 million fixed broadband ACP subscribers. That figure is a “conservative” estimate, taken from Charter’s share of broadband passings.

A look at each state’s response to the National Technology and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program Notice of Funding Opportunity’s (NOFO) Requirement 20 on Middle-Class Affordability and Requirement 16 for a Low-Cost Broadband Service Option.  This list also provides background information on the degree of participation in BEAD by municipal, tribal, and other government-owned networks (GONs) in each state. Thirteen states have affordability strate

In a time when broadband affordability still plays a major role in the digital divide, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) meets an obvious need. Roughly two years into the program, around 23 million households are enrolled for discounted broadband and a one-time device subsidy. We should be able to consider this case closed: We now have a strong, effective mechanism for closing the affordability gap. Indeed, ACP enjoys bipartisan support, and its virtues are extolled by industry and consumer advocates alike.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an order on winding down the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), but the FCC was silent on a key issue: What’s going to happen to the agency’s rules that legally require internet service providers (ISPs) to display broadband “nutrition” labels that promote the ACP? In late 2022, the FCC adopted label rules that require broadband ISPs to “display at the point-of-sale c

In a letter to a group of Republican lawmakers, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel confirmed that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is subsidizing fixed broadband services for nearly 10 million of the 22 million households enrolled in the program thus far. The letter was a response to an 

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) provides eligible customers a discount of up to $30 per month for broadband services. The benefits of the ACP—especially compared to other programs—is that it is tech-neutral; it does not limit users to a specific means of connection and gives customers choices over what service they want. Absent congressional intervention, the program is due to run out of funding as early as April 2024.