The FCC stopped accepting applications for enrollments in its Affordable Connectivity Program yesterday. Inside Towers reported that FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel had informed Congress it would need to do so unless lawmakers appropriated more money to keep the broadband program for low-income households going.
The Commission pegs ACP enrollments at around 23 million. The program is estimated to run out of money in April, something WIA President/CEO Patrick Halley says is “jarring.”
“Losing this broadband subsidy program will force families to make hard choices and will likely lead to many losing connectivity altogether,” Halley writes in an Op Ed. “With the value of a network based upon its ability to connect everyone, this is not a good result for our country.”
Halley also believes losing ACP could jeopardize future connectivity for those who don’t have it yet. “ACP is a central feature of the $42 billion BEAD program, designed to provide a low-income option for those in unserved areas when broadband arrives and incentivize as many people as possible to connect. If it disappears, it means more than just missing out on the opportunity to connect everyone—not bringing as many people as possible online could destabilize the network deployment itself,” he writes.
He explains that building networks in rural areas is difficult and expensive, so BEAD is designed to provide a one-time capital infusion for network service providers to build infrastructure that would otherwise never be cost-effective. Operating and maintaining those rural networks is also expensive. That’s why the BEAD model anticipates that service providers will receive certain levels of recurring subscription revenue to support these operating expenses—and ACP is an important part of that equation.Halley says nearly half of rural households qualify for ACP.
“Simply put, service providers need customers to support the network, and a lack of customers may lead to stranding our nation’s generational investment in broadband expansion,” he emphasizes. “This would be the worst-case scenario for solving our nation’s connectivity challenges.”
WIA has urged lawmakers to solve the ACP funding problem before the program expires and does so again now.
By Leslie Stmson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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