The Affordable Connectivity Program is ending

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WLNE) — According to the Federal Communications Commission, the COVID-Relief package that included $3.2 billion for the FCC to establish the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program to help households that were struggling to afford internet is about to run out of funding.

The Commission had the program up and running by Spring 2020, and the publics response was “overwhelming”.

The FCC shared that within the first week, more than one million households signed up, and hundreds of thousands followed suit week after week.

As a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021, Congress approved over $14 billion to extend the Emergency Broadband Benefit, eventually changing its name to the Affordable Connectivity Program.

Today, the program has over 23 million subscribers, or 1 in 6 U.S. households, the FCC reports.

The ACP will meet the end to its funding this month, and has began to wind-down the program by ceasing new enrollments on Feb. 8, 2024.

A survey conducted in December following the success of this program revealed that more than half of ACP recipients would have to “cut out basic expenses” to afford internet.

Spokesperson Jessica Rosenworcel of the FCC shared:

“Thanks to today’s survey data, leaders making the decisions about ACP’s future know one thing for certain: if we want to help close our nation’s digital divide, the Affordable Connectivity Program is not nice-to-have, it’s need-to-have. We’ve come too far to turn back now.”

For more information on the program’s closure, visit the FCC’s official website.