Affordable High-Speed Internet is Spurring Economic Growth and Boosting Small Businesses
Access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet is a cornerstone of the American economy and essential for economic growth. This is also a bipartisan view—Congress has found that “[a]ccess to affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband is essential to full participation in modern life in the United States.” However, nearly a quarter of American households continue to lack access to high-speed internet at home due to high costs, and in certain communities, a lack of necessary infrastructure. In particular, communities of color, Native communities, rural communities, and low-income households are disproportionately disconnected. That’s why, as part of his Internet for All initiative, President Biden committed to connecting every household in America by 2030, deploying over $80 billion in federal funding to expand access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet across the country.
Core to the success of the President’s plan is the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides qualifying households with up to $30 per month (or $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal Lands) off their internet bill. The ACP is the largest and most successful internet affordability program in our nation’s history, with over 23 million households enrolled—one in every six households. Because the Administration worked with internet providers to offer high-speed internet plans that are fully covered by the Affordable Connectivity Program, most of these 23 million households have received high-speed internet for free.
Without further funding from Congress, the Affordable Connectivity Program will expire today. This expiration would increase the price of internet for the more than 23 million households enrolled in the program with significant economic implications. That 23 million includes nearly 11.5 million military families, 4 million seniors, 5.75 million African American households, 5.75 million Latino households, and 320,000 households on Tribal lands. Many families would lose internet all together—a recent FCC survey found that more than three-quarters of respondents would have their service disrupted by losing their ACP benefit. Depriving these families of this funding would leave them without money to spend on other necessities like groceries, education, or healthcare. In some states like Kentucky, Ohio, and Nevada, one in four households are enrolled.