Affordable Connectivity Program Tools Show One in Four Applicants Newbies

WASHINGTON, August 18, 2023 – Roughly a quarter of applicants to the Affordable Connectivity Program did not previously have internet connection at home, said panelists at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance’s webinar on August 11.

Describing the statistic as a “surprising” revelation, Katherine Aquino, a data analyst at the nonprofit EducationSuperHighway, drew attention to her organization’s data tool, which tracks participation in the ACP – a program designed to provide monthly internet bill discounts of $30 and $75 to low-income Americans.

John Horrigan, senior fellow at the nonprofit Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, nodded to the data, adding that Benton’s ACP Enrollment Performance Tool also found the same implication.

The tool indicates a positive association between poverty level and ACP enrollment, meaning the poorest zip codes have some of the highest ACP participation rates, he explained.

“This should be good news for policy makers,” added Horrigan. “It means the benefit is reaching the target population the policymakers have in mind.”

The Federal Communications Commission announced on Monday that about 20 million households have enrolled in the ACP, which accounts for nearly half of the total eligible households. The agency also emphasized its ongoing outreach efforts to encourage a higher number of registrations for the program.

However, an enrollment uptake does not necessarily translate to good news.

Another ACP data monitoring tool developed by the advocacy group Institute for Local Self-Reliance paints a somewhat grim picture, estimating that as of August 2023, only approximately $6.3 billion in ACP funds remain out of the initially allocated $14 billion.

Experts have also predicted the ACP will run out of funding in early 2024, depending on how fast new households would sign up for the program.

“There’s still maybe 63% of the ACP eligible households that are still not benefiting from a potentially $360 federal benefit that they could be receiving,” said Aquino.

Meanwhile, ACP’s future seems to hang in the balance as numerous calls for funding replenishment have met with a lack of response from the halls of Congress.