The Affordable Connectivity Program Kept Them Online. What Now?

Shawn Wright worries a lot about his mom.

Wright, a 50-year-old IT manager from Oklahoma City, lives more than 1,300 miles from his elderly mother in Philadelphia and stays connected with her through regular phone calls, rudimentary texting, and a security camera system. He says she’s generally hesitant to welcome new technology into her life, but after she qualified for the federal Affordable Connectivity Program and a $30-per-month broadband stipend in 2021, she agreed to get internet access in her home and connect an Android phone to Wi-Fi.

Now that government-funded broadband stipend is winding down.

“I haven’t told her yet that the subsidy is ending, because I’m just going to start paying the additional fee for her internet service, and she would insist that I don’t do that,” Wright says. “She wants to feel like she’s independent. But I need to be able to support her remotely.”

As of Tuesday morning, the US Federal Communications Commission was forced to begin shutting down the ACP after Congress failed to pass a vote to extend the program. More than 23 million US households, roughly one in six, will be impacted, according to White House estimates. Data compiled by the FCC indicates that ACP recipients depend on their subsidized service for everything from school to work to health care needs.

First implemented in 2021, the ACP was part of a massive, $1.2 trillion Biden administration deal called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It provided $14.2 billion to make high-speed internet more affordable for low-income households. If a family’s income was less than 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Guideline, they could claim a $30 credit on their monthly broadband bill. Households on designated Tribal lands were eligible to receive up to $75 per month.

The ACP was considered the largest and most successful broadband affordability program in US history by the FCC and initially was set to last five years. But demand for the program was higher than expected, and the FCC said earlier this year it would have to wind down the program two years earlier than planned because funds had run out.

“To me, one of the worst parts is that it doesn’t fulfill a promise