ACP Helps Rural Communities Thrive in the 21st Century
Broadband today is a key tool for consumers to find jobs, do homework, see a doctor, order supplies, pay bills, check schedules, get real-time weather, monitor markets, obtain government permits, file taxes, connect with friends and family, and remain active with their faith community, – all these everyday activities and more are frequently done online. Whether in rural or urban areas, all Americans should equally benefit from access to the increasingly digital world we find ourselves in today. Washington has a responsibility to uphold the standard it set when tasked with closing the Digital Divide.
In establishing the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), Congress recognized millions of Americans still face financial challenges to obtaining acceptable broadband connectivity. Shouldn’t that continue to be the goal? To provide high-speed internet at low or no cost to as many communities who need it as possible. The roadmap is clear: Congress must renew funding for this critical program Americans rely on before millions of households are once again disconnected from the world.
The ACP is a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) benefit program that discounts eligible households’ internet service by $30/month ($75/month in Tribal areas). This discount can be put toward any internet service from any participating provider – including “low income” plans resulting in no out-of-pocket payment for some households. The ACP was enacted in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in 2021, replacing the more temporary, Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB), program adopted during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like its predecessor, the ACP equips millions of families in communities across America with affordable access to broadband – and access to the many resources of the online world.
The historical narrative around broadband has been that households are unconnected because they simply lack access to high-speed internet infrastructure – a narrative that tended to ostracize rural communities from the possibilities of connectivity. But the ACP’s enrollment data has proven the digital divide is overwhelmingly an affordability issue: Of the twenty-eight million households in the U.S. that don’t have broadband internet in their home, eighteen million households don’t have internet simply because they cannot afford an available Internet connection. That’s forty-seven million Americans who will continue to be left behind in the 21st century if the ACP is allowed to expire next year, simply because they lack affordable Internet.
For rural America, broadband deployment has been toughest in hard-to-reach areas, which in turn causes high costs for internet on rural consumers. The ACP, however, has finally fulfilled the promise Washington has made for a decade to rural Americans, by alleviating the high cost through providing a discount. Once more, it’s a market-driven program that allows the customer, not the government, to choose their provider. Poverty rates are higher in non-metro areas than in metro areas in every region of the country, and because of its market driven approach, the ACP is helping rural consumers with limited financial means rise out of poverty faster on their own terms.
While it may be acceptable to say the ACP has encountered modest success, we shouldn’t close the books just yet. Only 18.5 million households are enrolled in the program out of the 51.6 million households currently eligible. Limiting the ACP to this modest success would be disappointing to the millions who currently rely on this benefit program. Congress made an initial appropriation of $14.2 billion for the ACP, but funds for the program may already be exhausted by early 2024. Many of us in hard-to-reach rural areas may not even be connected to high-speed broadband by then. It’s clear that there is still a long way to go for ACP to reach its peak in potential impact, and funding to extend vital universal connectivity should be non-negotiable for Congress considering the number of Americans yet to even benefit from it.
Renewing the ACP also has broad public support on each side of the political spectrum. Polling from the Digital Progress Institute shows that 64% of Republicans support renewing the program along with 70% of Independents and 95% of Democrats. Lawmakers should take note, for the consequences of letting the program lapse would be devasting to consumers and have an irreparable loss of trust in Washington.
We’ve finally reached a point where we are seeing real impact to help folks that are on the wrong side of the Digital Divide, and it’s time to keep that trend going by renewing the ACP before it’s too late. Serious decisions in Washington need to be made, fast. As the deadline to renew the ACP nears, Congress needs to recognize that their actions in the next six months will be life changing for millions already on the plan and the millions more still enrolling.
Betsy Huber is President of the National Grange, America’s oldest national organization advocating for citizens living in rural communities and small towns in America.
