The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a federally funded program providing discounted internet service to economically disadvantaged households, officially ended on June 1, 2024, due to lack of funding from Congress. With no more federal financial support, millions of households are left to reap the consequences.
“Everybody needs internet service. Everybody,” said East Harlem resident Sonya Gibson. “I’ve got a lot of things I have to do. Even though I have my phone, I have to have internet service. You can’t go without it.”
Gibson, a senior who lives on a fixed income, explains that it can be challenging to prioritize necessities, but having subsidized internet service makes the burden of choosing between essential resources easier.
“Nobody understands until you’re dealing with one income how important it is to have these essential things,” she said. “When am I going to do that? How am I going to do that? So to have one thing free – it’s sensational.”
Gibson receives free internet through BetterB, a broadband service powered by Silicon Harlem, a nonprofit that aims to make the internet more accessible in Harlem.
With the end of ACP, founder Clayton Banks says providers like Silicon Harlem have been hit hard.
“Silicon Harlem would get a monthly check based on the number of people [enrolled in] ACP,” he said. “And so when it went away, it hurt us, [but] not the people that we serve. We took that shot because it was so important for us to make sure people in Harlem are getting the internet.”
Bringing it back to Harlem
More than 23 million households nationwide were enrolled in ACP, with nearly one million homes in New York City depending on the program. Launched in 2021 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the $14.2 billion initiative replaced the temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program spearheaded during COVID-19 as a long-term investment in affordable broadband.
Qualifying households received a discount of up to $30 per month, and households on eligible Tribal Lands received up to $75 per month on their internet service.
Data analysis from the New York City Council shows that in 2021, 8.1% of NYC households had no internet at all, while 28%, on average, lacked high-speed broadband internet access. For Black and Hispanic households, the rates are even higher at 35% and 36%, respectively.
Data from the Center for an Urban Future reveals several neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan rank among the top 25 ZIP codes with the highest enrollment rates, including several areas in Harlem.
In East Harlem, a predominantly Black and Hispanic community where the median household income is under $40,000 (2022), broadband access becomes even more critical upon recognizing these disparities.
“To fully participate in a 21st-century society, you must have access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet,” said Alisa Valentin, broadband policy director at Public Knowledge, a D.C.-based consumer advocacy organization.
“It’s important as it relates to folks being able to access education. It’s important for people to be able to work. It’s important for folks to have opportunities to up-skill for jobs. It’s also important as it relates to care, whether it’s something as simple as [what] many of us take for granted, like your ability to make an appointment online or to search for a doctor.”
As Valentin describes, the absence of reliable broadband means being cut off from other critical services like health care and education, which have historically been inaccessible to Black and Brown communities, indicating that the issue of inaccessibility extends beyond broadband to greater systemic inequalities.
Banks shares a similar message, noting that while the issues are interconnected, there is a simple solution.
“There is one thing that could actually address all of this, which is to make sure everyone has internet access,” he said.
At Silicon Harlem, they carry out this mission through various services such as educational workshops, digital literacy programs, and community outreach initiatives. With BetterB, they’ve connected 20 apartment buildings in East Harlem to the internet at a low cost. With ACP, that dropped to no cost at all.
Larger internet providers react
Despite the program’s end, the organization managed to keep their services free through local partnerships, which is not the case for other internet providers.
Charter Communications, a leading provider of broadband and cable services available through its Spectrum brand, reportedly lost 149,000 internet customers during their second quarter, primarily due to the end of ACP.
“We put a lot of effort into the ACP program, and it wasn’t renewed,” Charter President and CEO Christopher Winfrey said during their second-quarter earnings call, according to a transcript of the meeting. “Beginning early this year, we’ve been actively working with customers to preserve their connectivity. Our service and retention teams are handling the volume of calls well and we’ve retained the vast majority of ACP customers so far. The real question is customers’ ability to pay, not just now, but over time.”
To offset the impact of losing ACP, larger internet providers like Charter have implemented alternative strategies to keep prices low and retain customers. For example, Charter offered ACP customers a free Spectrum Unlimited Mobile line for one year.
At Verizon, they’re giving free home internet service for six months to new subscribers. The limited-time deal started earlier this year as news spread about the impending end of the ACP. Households losing ACP from other internet providers can access this offer when they switch to Verizon.
Federal investment is key
While these short-term efforts by bigger internet service companies are helpful, they are not permanent solutions to closing the digital divide in New York and bringing affordable broadband to households.
For Valentin, federal investment is essential to that mission.
“[At Public Knowledge] we are still advocating for short-term funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program,” she said. “Our strategy hasn’t changed because we’ve had the same ask but the entire year is going to be dependent on Congress actually taking up some action here.”
Looking towards the future, Banks advocates for what he calls “municipal broadband,” a mandate where the city would provide and own internet access in partnership with organizations like Silicon Harlem.
“We have a great way to do it,” he said. “We know how to do it, and we’re ready to do it.”
At the political level, disapproval persists, with representatives urging Congress to provide additional funding for ACP.
In late March, New York Congresswoman Yvette Clarke organized a bipartisan letter directed toward Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The letter, co-signed by 158 members of congress, called for preserving ACP as it went through its wind-down phase, emphasizing the importance of the program for accessing resources like telehealth services or government benefits.
“Reliable, affordable broadband access is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity in this increasingly digital age,” Clarke wrote in the letter.
Most recently, the local government has taken action to mitigate the effects of the ACP’s end. Just last month, Governor Kathy Hochul reached a settlement agreement with Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum, requiring the company to give discounted internet service to customers who receive Supplemental Security Benefits and those in the National Free School Lunch Program.
“My administration has been steadfast in its commitment to expand internet service to all New Yorkers, and this settlement directly benefits thousands of low-income New York families,” Governor Hochul said, according to a press release. “Broadband is crucial to driving economic growth and opportunity for all of our citizens, and we will continue our efforts to provide broadband access across the state.”
For Black residents of New York, internet access is vital for survival in a world that becomes more internet-dependent each day. Though the end of ACP leaves a significant blow to these households, the fight for equitable broadband access continues.
This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.