Tag Archives: Affordable Connectivity Program

Losing ACP impacts low income households, broadband providers and interest in grants

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Route Fifty reports that losing Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) may cause households to lose broadband access…

Congress and President Joe Biden may have touted that people of all incomes would be able to afford the broadband being built with $42.5 billion from the 2021 infrastructure act. But a decision by lawmakers last week is casting uncertainty on that promise.

The concerns from some state broadband officials stem from the fact that Congress did not include funding to preserve the Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP, as part of the package of spending bills it passed to avoid a government shutdown.

The Federal Communications Commission has said the program, which provides a $30-a-month subsidy to low-income households to pay for internet access, will now end April 30.

That’s not news. They look at an added dimension of losing ACP too; states have built broadband programs based on providers have access to ACP for their customers…

According to state broadband officials in Michigan, Vermont and Pennsylvania, its termination could not only impact the 23 million households on the program, but also those who live in areas where broadband is being built out.

In Michigan, for instance, the state wants to require broadband companies receiving grants under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment, or BEAD, program to charge lower-income people no more than $30 a month. Had Congress not ended the program, broadband being created through the BEAD program would have essentially been free for low-income households participating in the ACP.

Minnesota has similar language in their grants – the snippet below is from the most recent Border to Border grant applications…

Grantee and any other service provider for a completed Border to Border Broadband Infrastructure project will participate in federal programs that provide low-income consumers with subsidies on broadband internet access services. Grantee agrees that it will allow eligible subscribers in the service area identified in Grantee’s application in Exhibit B to utilize the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) for the duration of ACP or its successor until the date the Broadband Infrastructure Project funded by this award is no longer in use.

The State has been backed into offering a pig in a poke and applicants are being asked to buy into it. Both are put in a bad position by the end of ACP. We don’t know what a successor program might look like. Will it be attractive enough to allow more people sign up? of recouping costs of building broadband is “take rate” and if it’s too expensive, providers will lose customers and the take rate will be lower. Will it cost providers too much money?  And can you start a new venture without knowing the specifics of a segment of your costs and customer base?

Route Fifty concludes…

Eric Frederick, Michigan’s chief connectivity officer, noted in an interview with Route Fifty that about a third of the state’s households who now have internet access rely on that ACP. Without the subsidy, he estimated that a quarter or a third of the households in the areas where broadband service is being built out under BEAD may struggle to afford it.

“Without the subsidy, I know we’re gonna lose folks,” Frederick said. “It’s not going to be affordable.”

Benton Institute’s cool ACP Enrollment Tool can help you build a digital equity plan

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Benton Institute for Broadband & Society reports…

Today we are releasing our latest version of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Enrollment Performance Tool, which updates data through February 2024. We introduce a new feature in this version—the ACP Risk Score for each zip code included in the tool. This score indicates the degree to which households in a given zip code are at risk of losing or reducing internet connectivity should the ACP benefit lapse. A high score (on a scale of 0 to 100) is a sign that households in that zip code may be more likely to lose internet connectivity than households in areas with a lower score. If a zip code area has a risk score above 70, it stands a good chance of having its households face significant disruption from ACP’s demise. Losing connectivity could mean giving up home internet service completely or choosing between having a wireline or wireless subscription plan.

I checked my own zip code and was a little surprised at the results. I live in St Paul between three private universities. (I was a little surprised that only 88 percent have wireline broadband.) The info Benton provides helps create a localized digital equity plan. Where are the holes? Do you need to work on getting computers to folks? Or multilingual technology training? Would your community benefit from senior tech training? Will people need help paying for broadband when ACP discontinues?

MN bill is introduced in House HF5096: expressed interest in extending Affordable Connectivity Program

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The Journal of the MN House reports…

Stephenson introduced:

HF5096, A resolution memorializing the President and the United States Congress to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program of 2021, which provides our citizens with access to broadband services. The bill was read for the first time and referred to the Committee on Commerce Finance and Policy.

Here’s the bill as introduced:

A resolution
memorializing the President and the United States Congress to extend funding for the
Affordable Connectivity Program of 2021, which provides our citizens with access to
broadband services.

WHEREAS, access to affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband service is essential to full
participation in modern life in Minnesota and throughout the United States; and

WHEREAS, that the persistent “digital divide” in this State and in the United States is a
barrier to the economic competitiveness in the economic distribution of essential public services,
including health care and education; and

WHEREAS, in 2021, as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s historic
investment in broadband infrastructure and digital equity, Congress appropriated more than fourteen
billion dollars for the Affordable Connectivity Program; and

WHEREAS, based on the current expenditure rates, all of the appropriated funding for the
Affordable Connectivity Program could be exhausted in early 2024; and

WHEREAS, the Affordable Connectivity Program has been a tremendous success, with
almost 241,000 Minnesota households enrolled in the program and 23,000,000 households enrolled
nationally; and

WHEREAS, the Affordable Connectivity Program has been a critical tool in helping bridge
the digital divide that exists between those who have access to modern information and
communications technology and those who do not; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it urges and requests
each member of the Minnesota congressional delegation to support continued funding of the
Affordable Connectivity Program so that low-income Minnesota households can continue to receive
the support they need to participate in the digital marketplace.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed
to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States, the
presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United
States of America, and to each member of the Minnesota congressional delegation.

 

Benton finds benefits of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) are double the cost

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Benton Institute for Broadband and Society report …

Created by Congress in 2020 and renewed in 2021, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is helping 23.3 million households afford internet access. But funding for ACP؅—the largest, most successful internet affordability program in U.S. history—is set to expire on May 30, 2024. This week, President Joe Biden proposed short- and long-term funding solutions in his budget. And a House bill to provide funding through the end of 2024 had 180 cosponsors in the House of Representatives.

For anyone who may question the investment in affordable broadband, I’ve just completed an analysis of existing research that demonstrates that ACP creates $16.2 billion in annual benefits to users of the service subsidy, nearly twice the $8.4 billion it costs for the $30 monthly subsidy (which increases to $75 per month in Tribal lands and high-cost areas). In other words, every $1 of ACP service subsidy results in close to $2 in benefits.

The upshot is clear: ACP can have positive impacts on beneficiaries’ lives – benefits that are much greater than the program’s costs. As policymakers consider the ACP’s future, they should do so knowing that the program’s costs have positive and substantial payoffs.

EVENT Mar 13: FCC to host webinar on ACP wind-down

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The National Digital Inclusion Alliance reports…

On March 7th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officially announced the end date of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)—April will be the last fully funded month. With this news and the program’s wind-down in full swing, staying informed is crucial for both consumers and on-the-ground practitioners.

They have resources and info on the March 13 webinar to help folks with more information…

Watch our ACP Wind-Down Community Call here to learn more details.

The FCC will also host a webinar on the wind-down on March 13th. Find more information about the webinar here: FCC Webinar

You can also visit our  ACP transition webpage for more information and resources on the ACP wind-down.

FCC Issues Formal Notice That April Is Final Full Month of ACP

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The FCC gives public notice...

DA 24-195
Released: March 4, 2024
WIRELINE COMPETITION BUREAU ANNOUNCES THE FINAL MONTH OF THE
AFFORDABLE CONNECTIVITY PROGRAM
WC Docket No. 21-450

In this Public Notice, due to the lack of additional funding for the Affordable Connectivity
Program (ACP), the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) of the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) announces that the last fully funded month for the ACP benefit is April 2024. 1 Absent additional funding from Congress, the ACP can only provide a partial reimbursement for May 2024, and ACP providers have the option to claim and pass on that partial reimbursement amount to enrolled households. After May 2024, the ACP will no longer support any benefits to enrolled households. This Public Notice also (1) provides guidance on the May 2024 partial reimbursement month; (2) reminds participating providers of the notices they must send to ACP households; and (3) provides guidance on the consumer protections for ACP households during wind-down and after the ACP ends. The instructions and guidance in this Public Notice further the goal set forth in the ACP Wind-Down Order of keeping as many households as possible connected to broadband service after the end of the ACP.

Read more.

FCC surveys Affordable Connectivity Program users: they need the subsidies

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The FCC reports…

In December 2023, the FCC conducted a survey of ACP recipients to enhance our understanding of the program’s impact and how the end of the program may impact access to broadband services. Survey respondents were also given the opportunity to submit written responses to our questions about how losing ACP support would impact them.

Here are the survey highlights…

  • Highlight 1: More than three-quarters (77%) of the survey respondents say losing their ACP benefit would disrupt their service by making them change their plan or drop internet service entirely.1
  • Highlight 2: About half of survey respondents (47%) reported having either no internet service or relying solely on mobile internet service prior to receiving their ACP benefit. The same is true for rural respondents (53%).2
  • Highlight 3: Over two-thirds of survey respondents (68%) reported they had inconsistent internet service or no internet service at all prior to ACP. The majority of this group cited affordability as the reason for having inconsistent or no service (80%).3
  • Highlight 4: ACP subscribers reported that they use their ACP internet service to: schedule or attend healthcare appointments (72%), apply for jobs or complete work (48%), do schoolwork (75% for ACP subscribers 18-24 years old).4

Bill introduced: SF4511 resolution asking President to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program

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A bill was introduced in the MN Senate (SF4511) for a resolution asking President to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program. It was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development. Here’s the bill as introduced:

A resolution
memorializing the President and the United States Congress to extend funding for the
Affordable Connectivity Program of 2021, which provides our citizens with access to
broadband services.

WHEREAS, access to affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband service is essential to full
participation in modern life in Minnesota and throughout the United States; and

WHEREAS, that the persistent “digital divide” in this State and in the United States is a
barrier to the economic competitiveness in the economic distribution of essential public services,
including health care and education; and

WHEREAS, in 2021, as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s historic
investment in broadband infrastructure and digital equity, Congress appropriated more than fourteen
billion dollars for the Affordable Connectivity Program; and

WHEREAS, based on the current expenditure rates, all of the appropriated funding for the
Affordable Connectivity Program could be exhausted in early 2024; and

WHEREAS, the Affordable Connectivity Program has been a tremendous success, with
almost 241,000 Minnesota households enrolled in the program and 23,000,000 households enrolled
nationally; and

WHEREAS, the Affordable Connectivity Program has been a critical tool in helping bridge
the digital divide that exists between those who have access to modern information and
communications technology and those who do not; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it urges and requests
each member of the Minnesota congressional delegation to support continued funding of the
Affordable Connectivity Program so that low-income Minnesota households can continue to receive
the support they need to participate in the digital marketplace.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed
to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States, the
presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United
States of America, and to each member of the Minnesota congressional delegation.

EVENT Mar 20: Building for Digital Equity #B4DE – Life After ACP

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From the Institute for Local Self Reliance…

With the new year in full swing, the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) Community Broadband Networks Initiative and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) are gearing up for the first Building for Digital Equity (#B4DE) event of the year and encouraging digital equity practitioners to save the date.

The popular (and free) virtual gathering will be held March 20, 2024 from 3 to 4:15 PM ET and will feature an ACP-focused theme: Life After ACP

You can register for the event here.

ACP broadband subsidy makes a difference to recipients

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Propel reports…

In late April, funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is expected to run out, endangering three critical years of progress in closing the digital divide. Recently, we surveyed over 1,700 ACP-enrollees who use the Providers app about what the broadband benefit has meant to them and how their lives will change if it expires. Here’s what we found:

  • Nearly one-quarter of low-income households surveyed said that they would stop internet services altogether if ACP funding were to expire.
  • Survey respondents use the internet for essential everyday activities, including work/job opportunities (44%), education (40%), health care (41%), online banking (48%), accessing government services (53%), finding food (33%).
  • 58% of respondents say that affording internet access is at least somewhat difficult, even with the ACP.
  • 60% of respondents are first-time subscribers to internet service through the ACP.

The takeaway is clear: Unless the ACP is extended, families will have to make impossible tradeoffs between essential expenses or lose internet services altogether.

It would be interesting to learn what the impact of losing access would have on accessing government services. Will families miss out on services or will families call and show up for services that had been happening online – and what would the cost be to the government if those services (or even providing information on services) shifting to phone in person support. As a former reference librarian, I can tell you that answering a question via email (or FAQ webpage) is much quicker than real time communication.

 

Stats on impact of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) from Net Inclusion 2024

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Broadband Breakfast reports…

A recent survey revealed that 81 percent of households with schoolchildren receiving a monthly broadband subsidy are worried about the prospect of losing this assistance and its potential effects on their children’s education, according to the Universal Service Administrative Company.

These metrics “demonstrate with incredible clarity just how important it is to stay connected in modern life and how dangerous it is to threaten disconnection,” said Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, speaking during a Tuesday keynote at the Net Inclusion 2024 event convened by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.

Rosenworcel further reported that 75 percent of households receiving broadband internet subsidies use their broadband connection for telemedicine purposes.

You can watch the session from the conference below:

(You can watch the conference in progress today and tomorrow on YouTube.)

 

The White House asks Congress to extend ACP

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ABC News reports on ACP, as noted earlier, the deadline for signing up is today…

The White House is pressing Congress to extend a subsidy program that helps one in six U.S. families afford internet and represents a key element of President Joe Biden’s promise to deliver reliable broadband service to every American household.

“For President Biden, internet is like water,” said Tom Perez, senior adviser and assistant to the president, on a call Monday with reporters. “It’s an essential public necessity that should be affordable and accessible to everyone.”

The Affordable Connectivity Program offers qualifying families discounts on their internet bills — $30 a month for most families and up to $75 a month for families on tribal lands. The one-time infusion of $14.2 billion for the program through the bipartisan infrastructure law is projected to run out of money at the end of April.

They talked to Gary Johnson from Paul Bunyan Communications about it…

“We were very aggressive in trying to assist our members with access to the program,” said Gary Johnson, CEO of Paul Bunyan Communications, a Minnesota-based internet provider. “Frankly, it was they have internet or not. It’s almost not a subsidy — it is enabling them to have internet at all.”

Paul Bunyan Communications, a member-owned broadband cooperative that serves households in north central Minnesota, is one of 1,700 participating internet service providers that began sending out notices last month indicating the program could expire without action from Congress.

“It seems to be a bipartisan issue — internet access and the importance of it,” Johnson said.

Indeed, the program serves nearly an equal number of households in Republican and Democratic congressional districts, according to an AP analysis.

Reminder: Today is the last day to sign up for Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)

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The FCC reminds us that today is the last day for households to sign up for the Affordable Connectivity Program (federal broadband assistance)…

In this Public Notice, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) reminds providers, eligible households, and all other Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) stakeholders of the upcoming enrollment freeze beginning Thursday, February 8, 2024. To receive the ACP benefit, eligible households must be enrolled in the program by February 7, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET.1 The ACP is the largest and most successful broadband affordability program in our nation’s history and helps more than 23 million low-income households, across rural, suburban, and urban America obtain the internet service they need to access health care, work, educational opportunities, and more. Even with news of the program’s projected end in around April 2024, the ACP has remained popular as more households continued to enroll in the program each month.

The ACP funding appropriated by Congress is finite and, without additional appropriated funding, April 2024 is currently projected to be the last month for which the ACP can fully reimburse providers for the benefits passed through to enrolled households.2 To manage the end of the ACP, the Bureau announced the need to stop new enrollments on February 8, 2024 to ensure an orderly transition and to preserve the remaining ACP funding.3 Concurrent with the last day of ACP enrollments, the Bureau and USAC will also stop reviewing new provider applications and election notices on February 7, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. ET.4

Eligible low-income households that wish to enroll in the ACP must have a qualified application and enroll in the program with their preferred provider by February 7, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET.5 At the start of the enrollment freeze, both the paper and electronic ACP applications will be removed and no longer accessible.6 All ACP households enrolled at the time of the enrollment freeze will be able to remain enrolled and participate pursuant to program rules through the final month of ACP service.7

Quantifiable reasons for keeping the digital gap closed: saving lives, health and money

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It’s all over the news, including this blog, there is a danger of money running out for the Affordable Connectivity Plan (ACP). This means many households would lose their broadband subsidies. The Benton Institute for Internet & Society recently posted an article (from John B. Horrigan , Angela Siefer and Blair Levin) on the dangers of letting the ACP go, including concrete economic and healthcare examples. I’ve turned some of their examples into bullet points:

  • The ACP’s role in helping to keep people online has an important consequence: it increases the value of integrating digital tools into approaches to solve social and economic challenges. Maternal mortality rates in the United States offer a concrete example. The United States has alarming trend lines in this arena, with an increase of 60% in maternal mortality between 2019 and 2021. At the behest of Congress, the Federal Communications Commission has mapped where maternal mortality is highest—and the maps of places where new mothers die at the highest rates look a lot like maps of where household internet subscription rates are low.
  • Fortunately, there are promising ways to address maternal mortality that rely on home internet access for new mothers. In Louisiana, Ochsner Health has had success in using digital tools to monitor at-home blood pressure and other risk factors for pregnant women, resulting in fewer hospital admissions and caesarean section procedures. Such remote maternity online monitoring has reduced unexpected neonatal intensive-care unit admissions by 27%.
  • Telehealth is associated with people maintaining their participation in opioid treatment programs and telehealth can reduce the cost of health care service delivery with only marginal increases in in-person visits. Given the amount the United States spends on Medicare and Medicaid, universal, sustainable broadband should be seen as a huge opportunity to chart a necessary path to improving health outcomes while lowering costs. The benefits enumerated in these examples fall off steeply if target populations occasionally lose service.
  • A 2021 study showed that in areas where discount internet plans were available, there was a positive impact on employment rates and earnings of eligible households. With greater labor force participation and decreased probability of unemployment, low-income households saw a $2,200 annual earning boost from subsidized internet programs.
  • Indeed, a recent review of studies on broadband’s economic impact found “that broadband adoption positively affects employment.” For the ACP specifically, recent analysis finds that each dollar of the ACP subsidy generates $3.89 in spending for households. Overall, it is hard to escape the conclusion that home broadband adoption is an engine of economic opportunity for households in most need.

Affordable Connectivity Program: more helpful in metro than rural areas

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So much news swirling around the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), broadband subsidies for low income households, as there’s a risk at the program ending, which could impact 238,000 low income Minnesotans. The Daily Yonder takes a look at whether rural or metro communities benefit most…

While the future of the ACP remains uncertain, it is worth reviewing how the program fared in rural America. Home broadband adoption rates in rural areas have historically been 5-10 percentage points lower than those in urban locations. This is due partly to lower internet availability but also higher monthly costs in rural geographies.  So, were rural households, with lower broadband adoption rates and higher monthly bills more likely to embrace the program?

As the chart below suggests, the short answer is no. Using county-level data on ACP subscribers for each month of the program and estimates of the number of eligible households in each county, it shows that rural households were far less likely to participate than urban households.  Even more tellingly, the gap grew dramatically over the life of the program.

As the ACP began in January 2022, only about 13% of eligible households in the most rural counties (defined as codes 7-9 in the USDA’s Rural-Urban Continuum Code) signed up. This was well below the 21% rate for eligible urban households (RUC Codes 1-3).  These highly-rural counties saw their participation rate grow to 28% by late 2023, while urban households increased to 46%.  So, the rural-urban ACP participation gap increased from 8 percentage points (21% – 13%) to nearly 20 percentage points (46% – 28%) over the roughly two-year life of the program.  A smaller gap (and increase) was seen for less rural counties (RUC Codes 4-6), from 3 percentage points in January 2022 to 9 percentage points by late 2023.

There are several reasons for the rural-urban ACP participation gap visualized above.  The ACP (and EBB) was initially heavily marketed to the FCC’s Lifeline program participants, which had a strong urban presence (any Lifeline participant automatically qualified for ACP). This largely explains higher urban participation early on. As time went on, rural areas were disadvantaged by

1) lower numbers of internet providers advertising the program and

2) fewer civic organizations like libraries or non-profits spreading word about the program and helping people sign up.

ACP Outreach grants were funded in mid-2023 to help spread the word and enroll eligible households, but most have not had much time to make an impact. A recent academic study also explores the “hassle costs” and “benefits stigma” associated with program participation – both of which are likely higher in rural areas.