FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on Thursday wrote to Congressional appropriators to formally inform them that, in one week, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) will no longer accept new enrollments. To make clear the real-world impacts if Congress does not renew funding for this critical broadband affordability program, the Chairwoman shared enrollment data for every state, territory, and Congressional district which show that more than 23,451 households in Alaska could be at risk of losing affordable internet access.
“The Affordable Connectivity Program is connecting millions and millions of households across the country. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created this program, our largest-ever effort to make broadband affordable nationwide, but we now are on the brink of letting that success slip away,” said Rosenworcel. “Disconnecting millions of families from their jobs, schools, markets, and information is not the solution. We have come too far with the ACP to turn back.”
The ACP is a broadband affordability program. Nearly 23 million households across rural, suburban, and urban America rely on the ACP to pay for the high-speed internet service they need for school, work, health care, and more. The ACP supports eligible low-income households struggling to afford monthly broadband service.
Following pre-established wind-down procedures, the ACP will stop accepting new enrollments on Feb. 8, and an outreach effort is already underway to tell ACP households about the potential loss of the benefit.
Last week, broadband providers were required to send an initial notice to all of their ACP subscribers to preview the possible end of the ACP and the impact on the households’ broadband bills once the ACP benefit is no longer available.
Following the FCC announcing the official final month of ACP funding, ACP providers must send at least two more notices to households informing them that the ACP is ending, how and when the end of the ACP will impact their bill, and that they may opt out of continuing service after the end of the ACP or change their service.
As announced in January, ACP funding is currently expected to last through April with only partial support available in May 2024. Without more funding, nearly 23 million households across the country are at risk of losing internet access.
A bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives have introduced the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act, which, if adopted, would provide an additional $7 billion for the ACP.