The Benton Institute for Broadband and Society report on the state of low-income broadband adoption in a post-ACP world…

• Households planning to end or cut back on service: Half of surveyed households that had enrolled in ACP said they would either terminate service or downgrade to a slower or cheaper option upon the program’s end. Some 13% of ACP households said that losing the $30 per month service subsidy would cause them to cancel service and 36% said that, without ACP, they would seek a cheaper plan.
• Lost financial benefits: Losing broadband service would inhibit online usage, as low-income respondents said not having at-home broadband would significantly impact their online shopping and curtail using the internet for telehealth appointments. The report’s analysis values these lost opportunities at over $2 billion annually.
• The gap between what people pay and what they feel comfortable paying:  The survey asked people what they pay per month for standalone home broadband service. The average figure cited was $66.53 per month. Yet when asked what they consider to be too expensive a price to pay for service, 56% cited monthly bills of $75 or less. This means many households who pay for service find it a strain on their household budgets. More than half (53%) say that it is difficult for them to pay their monthly broadband service fee.
• Persistence of subscription vulnerability: Some 43% of all low-income households are subscription vulnerable, meaning they live at or near the poverty line, have had service disconnected due to difficulties paying their monthly internet bills, or express significant concerns about service affordability. This comes to approximately 19 million households in the United States that are subscription vulnerable. For them, maintaining internet service is a financial balancing act. The ACP helped address this challenge for low-income households.