Benton Institute for Broadband & Society - Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

States are Relying on the Federal Affordable Connectivity Program to Close the Digital Divide

benton — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 11:25:47 +0000

With the common aim of ensuring that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy, each of the 50 states is currently drafting a digital equity plan through what one official called “the largest demonstration of participatory democracy that our country has ever seen." The states are tasked with developing long-term objectives for closing the digital divide by addressing the needs of eight "covered populations"—including low-income households. Several states have released their draft digital equity plans and one tool they all rely heavily on for connecting—and keeping connected—low-income households is the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). However, estimates from the Federal Communications Commission project that funding for the ACP could run out within the next year. Also see:

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/states-are-relying-federal-affordable-connectivity-p…

Teaser:

The impact of Affordable Connectivity Program funding on state digital equity plans

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Grace Tepper

Send date:

Tue, 09/12/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/11/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Tue, 09/12/2023

Coverage Type:

Analysis

Visions of Digital Equity Principles

benton — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 11:34:35 +0000

Digital equity—or, digital opportunity, if you prefer—is having a moment. The US is making an unprecedented investment to ensure that individuals and communities have the capacity to fully participate in our society and economy. This is a huge undertaking with momentous implications on the future of the Nation. Each state has been asked to envision how life there can be transformed by achieving digital equity. As part of their digital equity plans, states have the opportunity to illustrate how ubiquitous, affordable connectivity to reliable, high-speed broadband will benefit communities through increased access to health care, education and job training, economic growth, and civic participation. With this extraordinary opportunity before state policymakers and local communities in mind, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society launched the Visions of Digital Equity project to aid both in ensuring that more community voices are heard in crafting visions that increase opportunity for all. Through surveys, community meetings, interviews, conversations, and a collaborative writing process with community contributors, we have arrived at a set of principles to help guide both the process and the resulting visions of digital equity. We hope these principles help the residents in each state evaluate their digital equity plans.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/visions-digital-equity-principles

https://www.benton.org/publications/visions-digital-equity

Teaser:

We’re asking states to articulate what success looks like when we achieve digital opportunity for all.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Adrianne Furniss

Send date:

Tue, 08/01/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 7/31/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Tue, 08/01/2023

Coverage Type:

Editorial

The Affordable Connectivity Program and Rural America

benton — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 17:38:37 +0000

Households in rural America are overcoming significant headwinds as they sign up for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) benefit at a higher rate than urban counterparts. Through April 2023, ACP enrollment data shows that: 15% of all rural households have enrolled in ACP and 14% of households in metro or urban areas have enrolled in the benefit. Even this modest difference is striking given the tensions that buffet rural residents as they consider enrolling in ACP. On the one hand, rural areas have characteristics that improve ACP enrollment according to the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s Affordable Connectivity Program Enrollment Performance Tool . Nearly half (49%) of rural households qualify for ACP compared with 40% of non-rural ones. This gap is largely because there are more lower income households in rural parts of the country. Some 36% of rural households have annual incomes at or below 200% of the Federal poverty level (FPL) in contrast to the 28% figure for households in non-rural areas. There is a positive correlation between areas with a large share of eligible households and ACP enrollment.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/affordable-connectivity-program-and-rural-america

Teaser:

Some 230,000 more rural households have signed up for ACP than predicted

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

John Horrigan

Send date:

Wed, 06/28/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 6/27/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Tue, 06/27/2023

Coverage Type:

Analysis

What Digital Equity Means for Rural Alaska

benton — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 11:29:05 +0000

Dleł Taaneets is the traditional name of my hometown of Rampart; it means “the hanging moose hide,” which the bluffs near our village mimic in color. My ancestors survived on these lands by following the lifeways of the season: spruce tips and birds in spring, salmon and plants in the summer, berries and moose in winter, trapping in the winter. Living off the lands of Alaska is unforgiving due to extreme weather, but my lineage endured and thrived by maintaining respect for one another, having gratitude to the animals and plants, and honoring the gorgeous lands that sustained them. Time moves differently in Alaska as we slowly assimilate into modern times. I don’t know when Rampart was first connected to the internet, but access wasn’t available for individual families like mine until I was an upperclassman in high school. To access the internet, my cousins and I would go to sit outside the Tribal office after hours during the midnight sun season, surrounded by mosquitos—a practice still done to this day. At the beginning of 2021, I left the oppressive service industry and promised myself to apply only to jobs that would begin my career in serving community. After months of pursuing jobs with no success, my eena (mother) forwarded me an email with an application to be the Broadband Specialist for the Native Movement and Alaska Public Interest Research Group (AKPIRG).

[ Brittany Woods-Orrison is a Koyukon Dené woman from Dleł Taaneets, an Alaskan village along the Yukon River. She grew up on her ancestral homelands learning how to harvest traditional foods and being taught her culture. Brittany traveled around the Western United States learning about the lands, the waters, and the Indigenous stewards for a couple of years before returning home to Alaska to be the broadband specialist for Alaska Public Interest Research Group and Native Movement. Brittany now works on digital equity, cultural revitalization, food sovereignty, reconnecting to the land, and deep community building.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/visions-digital-equity/community-contributor-essays/what-…

Teaser:

"The internet is a tool I never had when my family needed it, and I work for every Alaskan, young and old, to have safe, affordable, equitable access to the internet so that they can use it in ways that will allow them to thrive."

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Brittany Woods-Orrison

Send date:

Mon, 06/05/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 6/2/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Mon, 06/05/2023

Coverage Type:

Op-Ed

Digital Equity/Digital Inclusion

Marginalized Populations

Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

The Benton Institute ACP Performance Tool

benton — Tue, 02 May 2023 11:40:28 +0000

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is at an inflection point. Launched in early 2022, ACP provides 17 million households up to $30/month in subsidies to offset the cost of broadband. But the program faces two critical challenges. First, less than a third of eligible households currently participate in the program—mainly because the people who could benefit most from the subsidy are unaware that it exists. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), local governments, and digital equity groups are stepping up efforts to improve ACP awareness and participation. Targeted outreach is needed to inform these households about the ACP and could benefit from analysis of the patterns of ACP enrollment. Second, as successful as the program has been, ACP subsidies are at risk without Congressional action in the coming months. The initial ACP investment is dwindling which could mean the program will have to sunset in the next year. Analysis of enrollment patterns will show policymakers and advocates which places may suffer most from the program’s termination. The Benton Institute’s ACP Performance Tool is a resource for any community that wants to answer the question: “How are ACP sign-ups going?” To answer, search a 5-digit zip code on the tool’s website. The ACP Performance Tool returns results that show two important numbers for the zip code area: 1) how many households have signed up for ACP (from government data) and 2) the expected number of households enrolled.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/benton-institute-acp-performance-tool

Teaser:

The Benton Institute’s ACP Performance Tool is a resource for any community that wants to answer the question: “How are ACP sign-ups going?”

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

John Horrigan

Brian Whitacre

Hernan Galperin

Send date:

Tue, 05/02/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 5/1/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Tue, 05/02/2023

Coverage Type:

Research

Digital Equity/Digital Inclusion

Digital Divide

Federal Agency

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Broadband Programs

Affordable Connectivity Program (was Emergency Broadband Benefit Program)

Gov performance

Internet/Broadband

Data & Mapping

Affordability/Cost/Price

Adoption

Universal Broadband

Legislation

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Level of Government

Federal

Marginalized Populations

Low-income

Research

Headlines Specific Topic:

Benton Foundation

"A Very Rude Culture Shock"

benton — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:31:54 +0000

Barbara Drӧher Kline thought she knew what she was getting into when she moved halfway across the country and bought a 1890s farmhouse in rural Le Sueur county, Minnesota. Contractors advised her to tear the house down, but she loved a fixer-upper, especially after she had refined her remodeling skills on her previous home in California, a redwood log cabin near San Francisco. Drӧher Kline wasn’t scared by a rural lifestyle either. Both she and her husband, John Kline, had roots in the state, and he had grown up nearby. The plot twist was something even HGTV had not prepared her for: slow internet. The internet service provider for her new home, Frontier Communications, offered outdated technology with frequent outages and notoriously poor customer service. Over the next two years, from 2016 to 2018, she would jump between various internet companies, trying to secure the high-speed connections she needed to work remotely. The experience even inspired her to run for state office.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/digital-divide-diaries/culture-shock

Teaser:

How one homebuyer found herself working remotely, without internet.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Adam Echelman

Send date:

Mon, 04/24/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 4/21/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Mon, 04/24/2023

Coverage Type:

Marginalized Populations

Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

Half of ACP-Eligible Households Still Unaware of the Program

benton — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 11:27:12 +0000

After a year of operation, half of all households eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) internet subsidy are unaware of the benefit. A January 2023 survey of low-income households finds that over 50% say they have never heard of the program or do not know anything about it. Although many eligible households are unaware of ACP, the survey points to ways in which policymakers and community leaders can encourage enrollment. First, outreach can make a difference. Some 37% of eligible households that knew little about the program say they would be likely to apply with more information and 31% said they would be likely to apply if they knew whether they qualified. The other part of the picture is digital skills. The survey finds that respondents with high levels of confidence in their digital skills are nearly twice as likely to have successfully signed up for ACP than those with less confidence in their digital skills. Some 26% of those with high levels of digital skills reported that they had successfully enrolled in ACP compared with only 14% of those with low levels of digital skills. The survey also found that, among households that have enrolled in ACP for a fixed home service, most still pay something for internet service. When asked what they pay for internet service after the ACP subsidy, the median figure cited households that had signed up for fixed service was $40 per month. The sum of the ACP subsidy ($30) and the median remaining fee ($40) is in line with the average monthly bill ($75) U.S. households pay for service.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/half-acp-eligible-households-still-unaware-program

Teaser:

New Survey Shows that Outreach to Trusted Anchor Institutions and Digital Skills Training can Help

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Brian Whitacre

John Horrigan

Alejandro Alvarado Rojas

Hernan Galperin

Send date:

Fri, 03/17/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/16/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Fri, 03/17/2023

Coverage Type:

Op-Ed

Understanding and Driving Enrollment in the Affordable Connectivity Program

dclay@benton.org — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 16:59:03 +0000

Fitting the monthly cost of a broadband subscription into a low-income household budget is difficult, to say the least, because of the costs of competing necessities like lodging, food, and healthcare. These financial pressures—and unexpected expenses—keep too many people in the U.S. from subscribing to home broadband service—or cause them to drop service at times to make ends meet. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress recognized these obstacles for low-income people and created a program—first called the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program—to reduce the monthly costs of connectivity. With passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021, Congress turned the temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit Program into a longer-term subsidy. Launched in January 2022 with $14.2 billion in funding, the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a critical component of the ongoing federal investment in broadband adoption. Eligible households receive $30/month (and up to $75/month on Tribal lands) to defray the cost of internet service, as well as up to $100 towards the purchase of a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers. On January 18, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society hosted a panel discussion on ACP enrollment. Drew Garner, the State Broadband Policy Advisor at Common Sense Media, moderated the panel. He began the discussion by noting the three steps low-income households must complete before they begin enjoying ACP benefits: first, they must confirm that their household is eligible to participate in the program; then they must complete an application to be enrolled in ACP; and, finally, they must choose an internet service provider and pick a plan to subscribe to.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/understanding-and-driving-enrollment-affordable-conn…

Teaser:

Despite its success, ACP observers estimate that the program will run out of current funding by mid-2024, thus digital equity advocates must convince Congress to fund the program for low-income households.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Send date:

Fri, 01/20/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 1/19/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Thu, 01/19/2023

Coverage Type:

Analysis

It’s No Time to Disarm in the War Against the Digital Divide

benton — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 12:43:15 +0000

The pandemic spurred policymakers and community leaders around the country to create programs to connect those without home broadband service or computers. These programs have had an impact. New government data show sharp increases in broadband and computer adoption in the 2019-to-2021 time frame. Initiatives such as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) have helped address “subscription vulnerability” for low-income households. With progress evident, it is time to extend and build on the ACP and local affordability programs. Recently released data from the American Community Survey shows wireline broadband adoption grew by 4.7 points between 2019 and 2021, more than twice the 2.0 points of growth between 2017 and 2019. This suggests that pandemic-driven initiatives to address home adoption gaps have had an impact. (Read more in Broadband Benefit Programs are Helping to Close the Digital Divide.)

[John B. Horrigan is a Benton Senior Fellow. He is a national expert on technology adoption, digital inclusion, and evaluating the outcomes and impacts of programs designed to promote communications technology adoption and use.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/its-no-time-disarm-war-against-digital-divide

Teaser:

Broadband Benefit Programs are Helping to Close the Digital Divide.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

John Horrigan

Send date:

Tue, 11/29/2022

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 11/28/2022

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Tue, 11/29/2022

Coverage Type:

Research

What's wrong with LA's internet?

benton — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 11:37:08 +0000

Over the last two years, in California and across the country, billions of public dollars have been allocated to end the digital divide. The Digital Equity LA coalition, supported by the California Community Foundation (CCF) Digital Equity Initiative, has mobilized to ensure these investments are directed to the communities that need them most—those that have been historically marginalized and are disproportionately disconnected—and deployed in support of the most effective long-term solutions. Low-income households, people of color, and immigrants are significantly more likely to be stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide than people living in wealthy, white neighborhoods. The most common reason disconnected people report for not having a fast and reliable connection is affordability; the price is too high, or the service they can afford isn’t fast or reliable enough to justify the expense. Digital Equity LA and the CCF Digital Equity Initiative set out in Slower and More Expensive: Sounding the Alarm - Disparities in Advertised Prices for Fast, Reliable Broadband to document what people are being asked to pay for home internet in diverse neighborhoods across Los Angeles County. The findings of the research echo concurrent national research released by The Markup: low-income communities and communities of color routinely are advertised internet service at higher prices and slower speeds than whiter and wealthier neighbors. These findings are sobering, raising significant red flags about the potential efficacy of current interventions to close the digital divide.

[Shayna Englin is the CEO of 42 Comms, a strategic advisory firm, and is the Director of the Digital Equity Initiative at the California Community Foundation.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/whats-wrong-las-internet

Teaser:

Pricing practices must be investigated and addressed to ensure billions in broadband infrastructure dollars are effectively deployed.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Shayna Englin

Send date:

Mon, 10/31/2022

Daily Digest: