Agenda

While there's still a chance that funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) will be extended beyond April, one top policy expert fears that a successful extension faces an "uphill struggle." That was the assessment of New Street Research Policy Analyst Blair Levin, who shared his latest thoughts on the perils of the program in a research note. A pressing issue, he points out, is that ACP was not woven into Congress's latest budget package.

With the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) increasingly likely if Congress does not quickly step in with more funding, broadband operators are adjusting their game plans to continue to serve customers who have been benefiting from the program. Comcast, which has about 1.4 million customers on ACP, is no different.

Thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced across your communities – modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, and public transit systems. ... Providing affordable high speed internet for every American no matter where you live. 

On March 4, 2024, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote to congressional leaders to update them on the status of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). In her letter, the Chairwoman highlighted the impact of the February 8 freeze on ACP enrollments. "This enrollment freeze was necessary to begin the process of winding down the program, but already its effects are being felt by households that wish to enroll and are unable to do so.

We’ve heard the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) say 2024 is “the year of execution” for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson revealed how the agency is juggling BEAD along with its initiatives focused on digital equity and artificial intelligence (AI) risks. When Davidson first took the helm at NTIA, plenty of states didn’t even have broadband offices.

Comcast increased the speeds of four of its service tiers at no charge and made two announcements aimed at households enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which is slated to begin winding down in April 2024. Comcast has doubled its Connect tier from 75 Mbps to 150 Mbps. Connect More has moved from 200 Mbps to 300 Mbps; and the Fast tier moves from 400 Mbps to 500 Mbps. Xfinity Prepaid has been increased by a factor of four, from 50 Mbps to 200 Mbps. The speed increases are available to both new and existing customers. ACP.

Most of the concern over the impending demise of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)—the federal subsidy that’s made broadband cheaper or free for more than 23 million households—has focused on the people about to have a new hole drilled in their monthly budgets. Attendees at a DC conference hosted by an association of smaller telecom firms feel their pain: “Half of our problem in this nation is not accessibility, it's affordability,” said ACA Connects President and CEO Patricia Jo Boyers, at the group’s 

Best practice methods for assessing affordability developed and endorsed by academic and government affordability experts can provide much greater precision in assessing need thereby enabling more informed and more targeted digital equity interventions. However, recent experience in Washington state has revealed that few of us in the digital equity realm are yet comfortable applying these methods, or, indeed, are even aware of them.

Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Robert Garcia (D-CA) opened an investigation of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, examining whether the company implemented adequate safeguards to prevent Russia from deploying its Starlink satellite internet service in its war against Ukraine. The lawmakers sent a letter demanding that the company report complaints about potential illegal acquisitions of Starlink terminals, including in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.