An extra $30 a month may not mean much to most people, but for Lakewood resident Kathryn Beerline, a monthly federal subsidy to pay for internet service helped her save money and buy herself a 15 year-old used car so she could give the older car to her son.
The subsidy is due to end in May, when funding from the Affordable Connectivity Scheme is expected to be exhausted. While supporters, including the White House, are working to get Congress to extend the program, internet providers and ACP customers must find alternatives. Beerline said she switched this week to Comcast’s cheapest service, which costs $9.99 a month for 50 Mbps downlink, which is half the speed she got under ACP but a third of the price she pays now . She appreciates the extra help.
“ACP pays my $29.99 monthly bill, which is a huge boost as I am a single mom,” Beerline said in an email when she first learned ACP would end in February . $30 means a lot to someone like her, “who chooses never to eat out, go to Starbucks, and only treats myself and my son to the theater two or three times a year so I can put the only extra cost in( What’s left over after paying the bills is put into savings.”
Beerline is one of an estimated 251,506 families in Colorado participating in the program. According to the Federal Communications Commission, one in nine households in the state and 23 million households nationwide. While a congressional proposal to use $7 billion to extend ACP funding through the end of the year has gained momentum, the bipartisan bill has yet to gain sufficient support.
“Nearly half of the households in ACP are military families. About a quarter of them are seniors. Because of these programs, many are able to pay reasonable, affordable prices for internet, and for low-income people, many of them are able to Free access to the internet. That’s a big deal and we should make sure we maintain that,” said Jon Donenberg, deputy director of President Biden’s National Economic Council.
Colorado looks for alternatives
Colorado officials have been working to find alternatives if ACP ends. In January, the Colorado Broadband Office asked internet providers to offer low-cost options that were equal to or better than ACP when it awarded $113.5 million to 27 mostly rural projects to build better fiber broadband.
The larger amount — the previously announced $826.5 million Colorado will receive from the federal Broadband Equitable Access and Deployment Program — will be released later this year. State officials have been working with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to examine whether low-income requirements could be increased. Lauren Francis, a spokesperson for the Colorado Broadband Office, said it appears progress is finally being made.
“After working on several drafts with NTIA, we intend to meet the requirement for providers to offer low-cost broadband service rates of no more than $50 if the federal government no longer provides ACP subsidies,” she said.
She added that the NTIA has not yet approved Colorado’s proposal. By May, when ACP funds run out, the state is unlikely to have a solution.
“The failure of this project will definitely have an impact,” Francis said.
ACP was created out of federal COVID-19 relief aid to help low-income families pay for internet service during the pandemic, which has led to sharp declines in school attendance and made remote learning challenging for students with limited internet access. Initially, the amount will be $50 per month as part of the emergency broadband benefit. ACP replaced EBB in January 2022 and reduced the amount to $30 per month. Families on tribal lands receive $75 per month.
Both programs are open to residents who already qualify for other government assistance programs, such as Medicaid, food stamps or free and reduced-price school lunches.
But neither broadband plan has attracted a majority of eligible users. Earlier, internet providers criticized the challenges of getting customers to sign up, while digital divide advocates said there was no funding for the rollout. These issues were addressed in the ACP rollout, but results remain mixed. Only about one-third of Colorado’s 761,000 eligible households participate in ACP. Some potential customers worry about what will happen when the money runs out. But eventually, more than 250,000 people signed up in Colorado.
In Colorado, ACP participants are mostly outside the Denver area, which has the second-highest number of participants, according to FCC data. The state’s 3rd Congressional District has the largest enrollment, with more than 51,292 households registered, accounting for 18 percent of the community, according to FCC data.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who represents CD3, said she does not support the additional spending.
“Our debt is approaching $35 trillion, and the federal government has ruined almost everything,” she said. “I don’t think we need more federal subsidies for programs like this right now.”
Doberg, who advises Biden on economic policy, said the president wants a permanent plan, which would buy Congress more time to figure out what that plan is.
“The president said in this year’s budget that we want to see a long-term, sustainable funding solution here to sustain the program because I think what we’ve learned during the pandemic is that access to affordable and reliable high-speed The internet is not just a pandemic problem, it’s an American problem,” he said. “That’s really a requirement to participate in the economy and participate effectively in society.”
Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish contributed to this report.