Families Need Outreach, More Time to Enroll in Affordable Connectivity Program

WASHINGTON, January 27, 2022 – Greater outreach and a longer transition period for the Affordable Connectivity Program will help close the digital divide, the CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens said Wednesday.

At a Georgetown Law School digital divide event, Sindy Benavides said the recent transition of the Federal Communications Commission’s Emergency Broadband Benefit to the Affordable Connectivity Program is a step forward for families adopting services and devices. The program provides eligible households with discounts of up to $30 a month for broadband service, and up to $75 a month if the household is on Tribal lands.

But to get closer to closing the digital divide using such subsidies, better outreach is needed. Recent studies claim that only 7.1 million households have utilized the discounts offered by the Emergency Broadband Benefit, leaving as many as 30 million homes eligible to save on broadband service and devices.

Benavides said families enrolled in the EBB also need more time to transition to the Affordable Connectivity Program before transition period ends on March 1, 2022. “Not everyone can enroll before the March deadline,” Benavides said. “How is it that families are living day to day, without the assistance they need?” she asked. Families are ‘living, going to school, coming home late at night…think about those families that are surviving day to day.”

She added that it’s not enough that programs get funding, but more needs to be done to help families enroll in the services.

“So many jobs today require an application be submitted online,” she said. “But what if they don’t know how to connect to Wi-Fi, much less get to the website to submit an application,” pointing to a statistic that 1 in 3 Latinos lack access to broadband in America.