Benton Institute for Broadband & Society reports on the loss of the Affordable Connectivity Program on the economy…

The end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) may result in millions of households either eliminating or downgrading broadband service. This, in turn, could mean over $2 billion in lost consumer financial benefits and service delivery efficiencies for health care providers. …

The potential for service termination post-ACP could have significant economic consequences. More than half (55 percent) of ACP households said that being without home service would have a major impact on their ability to purchase items at an affordable price. This could translate into as much as $1.5 billion annually in lost financial benefits from e-commerce for low-income households that used the ACP.

A similar dynamic unfolds for telehealth visits and the forgone cost savings from less telehealth usage. Three in five (60 percent) respondents who used the ACP said that, in the prior three months, they had had an online appointment with a health care provider for a physical or mental health issue. Assuming that households who cut off service once the ACP ends move from telehealth to in-person visits, lost savings for health care service providers could approach $800 million annually.

And on BEAD’s “covered populations,” which are communities that Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) especially seeks to support…

The survey also explored the ACP and the impact of its expiration on the “covered populations” identified in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Some highlights:

• People with disabilities were among the greatest beneficiaries of the ACP, especially for adding home wireline connections. Some 36 percent of respondents who identified as disabled used the ACP (versus 22 percent for all other respondents). And 24 percent of all respondents with a disability used it for a new wireline home connection, versus 17 percent for all others.

• Rural households were as likely to use the ACP as all others. Some 27 percent of surveyed non-metro residents said they enrolled in the ACP, compared with 26 percent for all other respondents.

• Black Americans were more likely to have enrolled in the ACP, as 31 percent of those surveyed said they enrolled in the benefit plan.

• Hispanics were more likely to say that the ACP’s end will result in them downgrading service; some 45 percent said this compared with 34 percent of all others.

• Households near the poverty line (i.e., annual incomes below $20,000) were also more likely than others to enroll in the ACP, as 33 percent signed up for the subsidy. Some 27 percent of these households used the ACP for new wireline subscriptions. And nearly one in five (18 percent) of the lowest-income households said they would cancel service upon the ACP’s expiration—twice the rate of other ACP households (9 percent).