Twenty-three million families in the U.S. will have bigger internet bills starting in May. That’s because a federal broadband subsidy program they’re enrolled in is nearly out of money.
Dozens of people joined Biden administration officials, advocates and U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, at a Washington public library on Tuesday to make a last-ditch plea to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program, a subsidy created by Congress and touted by President Joe Biden as part of his push to bring internet access to every U.S. household. The program, which is set to expire at the end of May, helps people with limited means pay their broadband bills.
“They need access to high-speed internet just like they need access to electricity,” Sen. Welch told the gathering. “This is what is required in a modern economy.”
The Affordable Connectivity Program, which Congress created with $14.2 billion through the bipartisan infrastructure law, provided qualifying households with a subsidy of $30 a month to help pay their internet bills. Households on tribal land received up to $75.
Actually getting on the program is a shitshow.
I literally gave up.
I’ve been eligible the entire time the plan has been available and I’ve tried applying four fucking times and each time they can’t “verify my identity” and that’s the end of it.
I would care more about this program ending if it wasn’t such a fucking clusterfuck to begin with.
Are you sure that’s not your ISP? My mom qualified and it was incredibly painless to qualify, sadly her ISP said she would have to start paying next month.
The answer is to improve it, not throw it out.
If by improve it you mean classifying ISPs as utility providers and heavily regulating their pricing, breaking them up into tiny pieces, or forcing them to compete with one another or rent out their bandwidth then I’d agree.
If you mean just making it easier to sign up for, i’d wholeheartedly disagree. Simply handing our tax dollars to these greedy companies because they price gouge isn’t helping anyone. It’s just rewarding these companies for their anti-consumer practices.
23 million families x $30 each is $690,000,000 flowing to these handful of companies each year because they’re greedy. Imagine if we spent that money on housing or feeding people instead.
I think I remember having an issue with verifying my identity once but the second time I tried I didn’t have much of an issue. Fairly certain it was a month or so apart so maybe they changed the process?