As high-speed internet has become a necessity for families working from home (opens in new tab) and students learning remotely, the Biden administration (opens in new tab) has secured private sector commitments to help ensure that millions of American families pay less for broadband.
As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed last November, the US government was able to create the Affordable Connectivity Program (opens in new tab) that allows tens of millions of American households to reduce their internet service costs by up to $30 per month.
Now though, the Biden administration has secured commitments from 20 leading internet providers (opens in new tab) which cover more than 80 percent of the country’s population to either increase speeds or cut prices.
At the same time, the US government has launched a new site called GetInternet.gov that is designed to make it easier to sign up for the Affordable Connectivity Program and find participating internet providers.
Affordable Connectivity Program
The Affordable Connectivity Program is the largest high-speed internet affordability program in US history and experts estimate that 48m households or 40 percent of households in the country qualify for the new program.
If your household’s income is at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, you can qualify for the program though you can also do so by meeting one of the other criteria outlined in the latest Fact Sheet (opens in new tab) from the White House (opens in new tab).
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When it comes to the internet providers that will be part of the program by providing at least 100 Mbps to qualifying households, AT&T, Comcast, Frontier, Cox Communications, Spectrum, Verizon and other telecoms have agreed to participate. These ISPs serve urban, suburban and rural communities across the country which means that low-income households will be able to access high-speed internet (opens in new tab) no matter where they live.
It’s also worth noting that with the Affordable Connectivity Program there are no additional fees or data caps (opens in new tab). As such, qualifying households will only pay $30 per month or even less for high-speed internet.
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