Broadband industry abandons Congress fight for major internet discount

Internet service providers like Charter, Verizon and Comcast have quietly scaled back their efforts to revive the Affordable Connectivity Program, an expired federal internet subsidy that helped low-income households pay for broadband.

The $14.2 billion program provided a discount of up to $30 per month for some qualifying households and up to $75 a month for households on eligible tribal land. But it officially ended in June after Congress decided not to renew its funding.

The ACP served roughly 23 million households, two-thirds of which had either inconsistent or zero internet access prior to enrolling, according to a December survey from the Federal Communications Commission. In February, the ACP stopped accepting new applications as the program’s funding dwindled.

In the wake of the ACP’s expiration, broadband companies reported losing some customers. But overall, they have weathered the storm better than expected.

“Generally speaking, the impact on the companies so far is less than feared.” said analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson. “But that doesn’t take away from the families for whom this was important, and could now lose access to broadband.” 

Since the ACP lapsed, some Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been working to bring back the program.

And though broadband companies lobbied to get the ACP renewed before it expired, since then they have done little to revive the program, as there is uncertainty over where the funding would come from and November’s election has cast a chill on Capitol Hill.

“I know the difference between when industry really wants something to happen, and when they say, ‘Well, we support it, sure,’ but they don’t put money into advertising, they don’t put money into lobbyists, they don’t put money into doing the kind of studies that support the case,” New Street Research analyst Blair Levin told CNBC.

Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and the House have brought forward bills that would spend between $6 billion and $7 billion to relaunch the ACP, at least temporarily.

“My hope is that we can get something done rather quickly, especially as kids are getting ready to go back to school,” said Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, in August. He jointly proposed the House bill with Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill.

The ACP was originally funded as the Emergency Broadband Benefit program, a pandemic-era internet subsidy that quickly gained support when reliable access became a necessity in a world dominated by online school and work. 

Internet usage soared in 2020 and 2021. Even now, usage levels are well above pre-pandemic levels, according to broadband data provider Open Vault.

But as Covid grows more distant in public memory, convincing lawmakers to spend billions to extend these subsidies has become an uphill battle.

One key reason is election year timing.

For example, GOP Sen. JD Vance of Ohio was…