Low-income

In this Order, the Federal Communications Commission adopts final rules for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which builds upon the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB Program), to offer eligible low-income households discounts off the cost of broadband service and connected devices.

Starry, a small internet service provider based in Boston (MA), is celebrating a milestone for its Starry Connect service, expanding the reach of its digital equity program to more than 55,990 household units of public and affordable housing. Starry reached that goal at the end of 2021, a year that saw the company ink a deal with FirstMark Horizon Acquisition Corp. that will take it public. The company remains on track to close that SPAC transaction by the end of the first quarter of 2022. Starry Connect, its $15/month product that promises 30 Mpbs, targets public and affordable housing.

In the Hamilton County Schools district (which includes Chattanooga), roughly a third of the district’s 45,000 students did not have home access to stable internet. When COVID forced schools online, one in three students could not attend virtual class. Within days of COVID pushing schools to remote learning, Chattanooga leaders implemented an emergency solution: installing 98 Quick Connect hotspots providing residents with free high-speed internet.

Rep Brenda Lawrence (D-MI) introduced the Digital Literacy and Equity Commission Act (HR 6373), new legislation that streamlines the federal government’s approach to digital literacy.

AT&T opened enrollment for its discounted internet service plans that are being offered as part of a federal program designed to lower the cost of internet access for low-income Americans. Called the Affordable Connectivity Program, the initiative is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission and funded through the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law, passed in November 2021. AT&T said the benefits can be applied to a variety of eligible AT&T internet plans, as well as eligible AT&T and Cricket Wireless plans.

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Executive Director Adrianne B Furniss named Adam Echelman a new Benton Fellow. Over the next two years, Echelman will create unique and diverse narratives that explore how low-income adults are grappling with the digital divide. The narratives will appear as a mix of photo essays, video shorts, radio interviews, feature articles, and op-eds. "Adam Echelman's exciting and much-needed work is exactly what the Marjorie & Charles Benton Opportunity Fund was created to support," said Furniss.

In accordance with Congressional directives in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Federal Communications Commission officially launched the Affordable Connectivity Program, the $14.2 billion successor program to the Emergency Broadband Benefit which helped almost 9 million afford internet access during the pandemic. Eligible households are encouraged to apply to receive up to $30 per month discount toward internet service and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau offers clarity on the rules that will govern the Affordable Connectivity Program before new rules are in effect.

New Orleans (LA) is making an ambitious bid to deliver WiFi to the homes of its poorest residents. Using “smart,” electronic streetlights as nodes, it wants to establish a new citywide internet service, one that will compete with existing carriers like Cox and AT&T. The city intends to include a free tier for everyone who needs it, a group amounting to at least 16 percent of the population. But the plan is being met with skepticism from the left.

Service providers who plan to participate in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) could submit