The acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Monday announced a proposal to use $ 3.2 billion in emergency funds to significantly subsidize broadband services for millions of households, an effort to reduce the digital divide that plagued low-income families during the pandemic has.
Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel has announced that, according to her proposal, qualifying households will receive a $ 50-a-month discount for high-speed Internet service. The discount is $ 75 for households on tribal lands. Me. Rosenworcel sent the proposal for a vote to the other three commissioners, but did not specify when the vote for the program, called the emergency broadband benefit, would take place.
Congress allocated the money last December as part of a Covid-19 emergency relief bill. The money is available to households that are 135 percent above the poverty line, those who are eligible for free and reduced school meals, or who have experienced a significant loss of income since 29 February 2020.
At least 14.5 million homes do not have access to high-speed Internet. For many families, especially in urban and suburban areas, the high cost of broadband has prevented them from accessing the service. The effects of the digital divide during the pandemic were severe. Children were cut off from online learning and adults could not work from home or obtain important health information.
“No one has to choose between paying their internet bill or putting food on the table,” she said. Rosenworcel said in a statement. “With the help of the Emergency Broadband Benefit, we have a new way for households to access virtual learning, for patients to connect with telecom providers, and for those struggling in this pandemic to learn new online skills and their looking for next job. “
The digital divide was one of the most persistent problems for the federal government. Although federal subsidies worth more than $ 8 billion are allocated annually to Internet service providers to bring broadband to every U.S. home, adoption and access prices have improved during a crawl. Broadband cards, for example, are notorious for exceeding how many households have access to the service. If an ISP like Verizon or Comcast only reaches one home in a census block, the entire block appears to be linked on federal maps – even if not all homes actually get the broadband option.
Last week, Mrs. Rosenworcel announced a task force to study the agency’s tracking of broadband access data.