Reverberations from the ending of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) are being keenly felt both by participating households and the broader economy.
In April, with the ACP’s end on the horizon, the Benton Institute surveyed more than 2,500 households with annual incomes of less than $50,000 about the potential impact of the program’s termination.
The institute found that 13% of ACP households said that they would disconnect their service when the benefits of the program — $30 per month ($75 on Tribal lands) for internet connectivity — no longer were available. That equates to about 3 million households.
Another 8.3 million households (36%) said they would downgrade to cheaper or slower plans. The lowest income families seem most at risk: 18% of these households said they would cancel service when ACP ended, twice the rate of other ACP households (9%).
“The analysis here suggests that this impact will be in excess of $2 billion annually,” John B. Horrigan, PhD, a senior fellow for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, wrote in the report.
“Specifically, between telehealth and e-commerce, the impact of the ACP’s termination could approach $2.4 billion. This includes additional costs to health care providers resulting from fewer telehealth appointments and lower levels of benefits to households from e-commerce, as those who cancel service post-ACP would engage in less online shopping.”
The reality is that loss of subscribers — even those in economically-challenged households — will have significant impact on e-commerce. The institute found that 55% of households suddenly without broadband will experience “major impact on their ability to purchase items at an affordable price.” In other words, those households will be shopping online less or not at all.
The stress from the ACP’s end is uniform across population densities, according to the institute. It found 27% of the rural population profiles were enrolled in the program, roughly even with other population densities of 26%.
The study focused on the impact on telehealth. It concluded that 1.34 million telehealth appointments will be lost over a three-month period. Over a 12-month period, the transition to more expensive physical visits will result in “foregone cost savings” of $150 per visit and total more than $807 million.
It is unknown whether survey respondents were aware of efforts by service providers to offer options to those impacted by the end of the program.
