Editor’s Note:

Broadband internet access is critical for participation in modern society. Emerging technologies like Latimer require a broadband connection and a computing device to function. This feeds into a digital divide that is clearly visible along racial lines. 

These disparities affect education, employability, and participation in the technology ecosystem. Unfortunately, one of the major programs that increased broadband connectivity for underserved communities, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), will run out of funding in 2 months. For this week’s newsletter we invited Jerome Howard, COO of Black-owned ISP Culture Wireless, to shed more light on the importance of the ACP.

Ishvaraus Davis, Executive Director

by Jerome Howard

The Affordable Connectivity Program is a U.S. government initiative aimed at helping low-income households afford internet access. Introduced in December of 2021, the ACP served as a response to the pain of isolation that many Americans felt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of its existence, the ACP has helped connect over 23 million households with affordable internet and devices. This has proven to be particularly important for the Black community where 1 in 4 participating households are African American, meaning about 5,750,000 families in our community are at risk of losing internet access by the end of April. Statistics also show that 4 million seniors and 10 million Americans over the age of 50 have benefited from the program. With such an impact, why would it ever end?

At Culture Wireless, we saw people firsthand who were in areas where broadband infrastructure already existed and were now able to afford home internet. We saw college students being able to access laptops with the one-time device discount of $100. Senior citizens who were on fixed incomes could now have an affordable bill to stay connected to the digital world. That's where the ACP has had an undeniable impact. Now that the ACP is potentially ending, how do we move forward to ensure progress in the digital world? First, we must form a unified front to let Congress know that this program must not end. In parallel, we have an opportunity to focus on another program: Broadband Equity and Access Deployment (B.E.A.D)!

The B.E.A.D. program was established in 2021 with $42.45 billion in funding from the Infrastructure Bill. The purpose of this funding is to provide each state with at least $107 million to deploy infrastructure and provide better broadband options in unserved or underserved areas. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that bid for this funding are tasked with working with municipalities to build a fiber deployment plan. In addition, they must meet the minimum internet speed (100 Mbps download/20 Mbps upload), and commit to completing the project in 5 years. With this funding, states have an opportunity to award smaller ISPs funding to build networks in more rural and diverse communities. This directly impacts Black communities and should provide some relief in the case that the ACP doesn’t receive additional funding.

I challenge the readers in this community to attend your next city council or county commissioner’s meeting and inquire about their broadband plan as it relates to B.E.A.D. Ask if they are aware of the NTIA broadband map and how many unserved or underserved locations are in your city/county. And while you’re there, ask about the mitigation plan for the ACP potentially going defunct. This is a crucial time for our community to address lack of connectivity so we need all hands on deck to ensure families are connected to broadband.