(TNS) — The Federal Communications Commission has begun winding down a program that helps low-income people pay for internet service, which would affect 67,548 subscribers in Allegheny County alone.
In a conference call Tuesday, FCC officials said most of the funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program will run out by the end of April without additional appropriations from Congress. Enrollment in the program, which has nearly 23 million beneficiaries nationwide, is scheduled to close Feb. 7.
“It’s going to be a mess to notify all these people,” said Dave Sevick, executive director of Computer Reach, a Homewood nonprofit that refurbishes laptops for distribution to needy families. “It’s really a sad story of hurting people who are low income.”
Affordability was a key element of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was signed into law by President Joe Biden, which included $14.2 billion for the Affordable Connectivity Program. Now, Congressional approval is needed to continue the program after the initial funding runs out in April.
Some 745,124 Pennsylvanians use the program’s $30 per month subsidy to offset the cost of internet access, according to the Universal Service Administrative Co., a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit.
The Biden Administration has requested an additional $6 billion to extend the program and bipartisan lawmakers have introduced the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act, which would provide $7 billion to continue the subsidy.
Sponsors of the bill include senators Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont and J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio; and U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Philadelphia. Supporters include over 400 organizations representing industry and community organizations, including AgeWell at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill and Allies for Children, North Shore.
Among the people who rely on the program to pay their internet service bills is Phyllis Jackson, a 79-year-old retired government worker living in Monroeville, who dances socially twice a week and has performed her dance moves at senior centers.
Jackson said she’s on the internet a couple hours every day, looking up cooking recipes, paying bills and learning about the medications prescribed by her doctor.
“A lot of people my age don’t get around a lot,” said Jackson, who said she never married, but was “engaged quite a few times.”
Jackson, who sometimes walks to the grocery store to save bus fare, said she could probably pay for the internet without the monthly FCC subsidy, but that would mean cutting other expenditures, which would be difficult with heating costs rising in the bitter cold and her rent going up $50 a month in April.
“Every dollar counts,” she said.
Recently, she was heartbroken when an office desk she ordered online arrived in pieces. But she said she went online, punched in the desk model number and called up step-by-step instructions.
Soon, the desk was put together, with just a few screws remaining that she wasn’t sure what to do with.
“I’m so proud of myself,” she said. “I almost cried.”
