A crisis for many low-income internet users is looming. It’s linked to a critical government program expected to run out of funding at the end of April. Known as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), the benefit provides discounts on internet service valued at up to $30 per month to qualifying low-income households, or up to $75 per month for eligible recipients on tribal lands.
Lawmakers have known for months about the approaching deadline. Yet Congress is nowhere close to approving the $6 billion that President Joe Biden says would renew the ACP and avert calamity for tens of millions of Americans.
This past week, congressional leaders missed what advocates say was the last, best legislative opportunity for funding the ACP: The 11th-hour budget deal designed to avert a government shutdown. The bill text released this week includes no money for the program, heightening the odds of an emergency that will plunge millions into financial distress just months before the pivotal 2024 election.
Now, with time running out for the ACP, the FCC has been forced to begin shutting down the program — halting new signups and warning users their benefits are about to be suspended.
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The Affordable Connectivity Program stopped accepting new applications and enrollments on February 7, 2024. The last fully funded month of the program is April 2024.
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The Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP, provides monthly discounts of $30 to $75 to help low-income households pay for home internet. The FCC’s move to freeze new sign-ups is another step toward the program’s expiration, which the FCC discussed in a letter to Congress in early January. Existing subscribers will still receive the discount until April, when, the FCC says, the program will officially run out of money unless Congress takes action to extend funding.
The change disproportionately affects minorities, people of color, veterans and seniors, according to a
White House fact sheet released Tuesday. The sheet says 1 in 4 households participating in the ACP program are African American, 1 in 4 are Latino and nearly half are military families, along with 4 million seniors and 10 million Americans over the age of 50.
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Access to broadband is one of the most important equity issues of our time. That’s why it’s such a big problem when access to broadband isn’t universal – and it isn’t. Historically marginalized communities, including Black, Latine, Indigenous, rural and low-income consumers are all far less likely to have access to the internet. One of the top reasons for this disparity is subscription cost. U.S. broadband prices are amongst the most expensive in the world – with the average U.S. household paying $84.37 a month, compared to $46.83 in Europe and $64.29 in Asia. For many households, the high price of an internet subscription may mean that, when times get tough, they have to choose: broadband or food.
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