More than 20 million American households are receiving discounts on internet service as part of a federal program created to end digital exclusion, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) from the government seeks to address the issue of the cost of reliable internet service for low-income families by providing $30 monthly subsidies for eligible households. People living on tribal lands can receive even more, up to $75 per month.
U.S. residents may qualify for the program if they meet certain eligibility requirements, such as participating in other government assistance programs, including SNAP or Medicaid, if their income is below a certain level, or if they have recently received federal Pell grants.
In early 2022, just a few months after the program went into effect, the FCC reported that more than 10 million families had signed up for the ACP.
In February of this year, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the number had grown to over 16 million families, who would be saving a total of $500 million per month on internet services.
The program has continued to gain more than half a million new families each month since then.
Despite the program’s popularity and its rapid uptake by consumers, the new enrollment numbers still represent only about 40% of the estimated 50 million households in the United States that may be eligible for assistance through the ACP, according to a survey by the consumer advocacy group, Common Sense Media.
And the future of the ACP is uncertain: once the program exhausts the $14 billion that Congress initially allocated for it, millions of low-income Americans may lose their monthly discounts. The more families that enroll, the faster the program will deplete its funding. Policy analysts widely predict that the ACP will run out of money in 2024, pressuring Congress to extend the program.
Source: CNN