The clock is ticking for 81,000 Rhode Island households on the Affordable Connectivity Program. ACP is the most ambitious home internet subsidy in this country’s history. Since 2022, eligible households have been receiving $30 monthly internet service, but the federal subsidy for broadband ends April 2024, when the federal dollars run out. The feds have spent $14 billion nationwide for nearly twenty-three million households currently enrolled in ACP since last year. That is one in six households nationwide.
This means there will be a financial cliff for RI citizens as the subsidy for their monthly internet monthly bill goes away. This may cause serious poor credit headaches for people who may not read the notice from their internet service provider that the subsidy is gone, and market rates may apply.
In a sharply divided U.S. Congress, there is a bipartisan bill to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program, but only until December. While it’s questionable whether Congress can even get it together to act on that bill, an extension is only temporary. A long-term solution is needed to keep the router lights on in this country. Meanwhile, we have 81,000 Rhode Island households who could lose their access, including thousands of seniors and veterans who are finally ‘digitally connected’. The federal $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access (BEAD) program is to incentivize Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to build and provide access to those in rural areas and close the digital divide for the unserved and underserved. The ACP internet subsidy is integral to making BEAD successful, removing the “E” in BEAD would be BAD.What if Congress does not act? Each state should establish consumer protection laws to safeguard seniors, veterans, and low-moderate income households so they can stay connected. What role does the internet service provider play as a good corporate citizen in providing solutions? Internet service providers could create a grace period after April so the people who can least afford a poor credit rating are not burdened with one because their internet costs have become unaffordable. We can all agree that fast, dependable, and affordable high-speed internet is not a luxury, but a necessity in a 21st society. We no longer ‘go online’, we live online.
But if Congress does not extend the federal program, what are the solutions and who pays? If this is a cost that the state must absorb, no one in the state government has budgeted for hundreds of millions of dollars. The ISPs, as an industry, could set aside money as a cost for doing billions of dollars of business in the states. Whether ACP ends this April, or December, or next year, it will eventually end. What is the long-term solution to keep all Rhode Islander’s connected?There is a nationwide campaign to save ACP and with a catchy name, Don’t Disconnect US. Anyone who cares about affordable internet should contact their Congressional delegation and tell them to fund this federal program before it’s too late. So, while you still have internet, go to www.dontdisconnectUS.org.
Deborah Ruggiero spent 14 years in the RI House of Representatives and chaired the House Internet & Technology Committee, championing broadband legislation for RI to access BEAD funding. She is president of DR Communications Group, a marketing communications firm.