Breezeline has introduced the Internet Assist Plus service, which offers 100 Mbps service to subscribers who are eligible for the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).
Providers participating in the ACP receive $30 a month from the fund per subscriber, with support at $75 on Tribal lands. Internet Assist Plus is $29.99 per month, which means that it is essentially free for ACP subscribers. Breezline ACP subscribers choosing a higher speed receive a $30 credit. Households must be approved for the program before claiming their credits.
“We are pleased to offer this new high speed Internet Assist Plus option for eligible households,” Heather McCallion, Vice President of Products and Programming for Breezeline, said in a press release about the ACP. “We have supported ACP and its predecessor, the Emergency Broadband Benefit, since its inception so that households facing financial hardships have access to high performance internet with no data caps.”
The ACP, which also provides $100 towards devices if the household contributes $10 to $50, was part of the infrastructure bill passed last year. Congress mandated that the FCC transition from the Emergency Broadband Benefit program that was put in place to help keep people connected during the COVID-19 pandemic – to ACP which is not tied directly to pandemic relief.
The ACP has a budget of $14.2 billion. It is aimed at households with incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty guideline.
In February, Vice President Kamala Harris said that the ACP had enrolled 10 million households into the program.
Several service providers have signed onto ACP during the past few months. These include Comcast, AT&T, Cox, Verizon and Mediacom.
Breezeline, which claims to be the eighth largest cable operator in the United States, formerly was known as Atlantic Broadband. It is a subsidiary of Cogeco Communications and provides services to residential users and businesses in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
