Assistance program
Affordable Connectivity Program
$16.7 Billion committed in FY2021–FY2026
- Agency
- Federal Communications Commission, Federal Communications Commission
- Assistance
- Not Applicable
- CFDA number
- 32.008
- What it does
- On December 27, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Consolidated Appropriations Act) was signed into law. Among other actions intended to provide relief during the pandemic, the Consolidated Appropriations Act established an Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund of $3.2 billion in the Treasury of the United States for the fiscal year 2021. The Act directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) to use that fund to establish an Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB Program), under which eligible low-income households may receive a discount off the cost of broadband service and certain connected devices during an emergency period relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, and participating providers can receive a reimbursement for such discounts. The Commission voted to adopt the EBB Program rules, and pursuant to statutory requirements, the final order was adopted on February 25, 2021. The EBB Program launched on May 12, 2021. On November 15, 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Infrastructure Act) was signed into law. Pursuant to the Infrastructure Act, the Affordable Connectivity Program builds on the EBB Program by using new funding to provide discounted broadband service and connected devices to low-income households. The Infrastructure Act leaves the EBB Program’s basic framework in place, but it does make changes to the benefit amount, rules regarding plan and subscriber eligibility, and providers’ public promotion obligations, among other changes, and appropriates an additional $14.2 billion to implement those changes. The Commission adopted the Affordable Connectivity Program rules on January 14, 2022.
- Who benefits
- Not Applicable
- Who applies
- Provider Eligibility: In the Infrastructure Act, a “participating provider†for the Affordable Connectivity Program shall be a broadband service provider that is either designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) or seeks approval from the Commission for participation in the Affordable Connectivity Program. ETCs and non-ETCs must establish they provide broadband service to participate in the program. Household Eligibility: Support is available only for one line per household; applicants are eligible if at least one member of the household: Income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines; Meets the qualifications for participation in the Lifeline program, that is, if they participate in one of the following federal assistance programs: Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, Federal Public Housing Assistance, or Veterans Pension and Survivors Benefit; or one of the following Tribal-specific federal assistance programs: Bureau of Indian Affairs general assistance, Tribally-administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Head Start (only those households meeting its income qualifying standard), or the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations; Receives benefits in the current school year under the free and reduced-price school lunch program or the school breakfast program, including through the USDA Community Eligibility Provision, or did so in the school year immediately preceding the application for the Affordable Connectivity Program; participates in the Special Supplemental Nutritional Program for Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC); Has received a Federal Pell Grant under section 401 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 in the current award year; or Meets the eligibility criteria for a participating provider’s existing low-income program, subject to approval by the Commission.
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments