Search
Close this search box.

Policy Hub

Explore Our Research and Public Policy Resources

Busy business woman connected while working from home

OUR WORK

Bridging the Broadband Affordability Gap

EducationSuperHighway is a national non-profit with the mission to close the digital divide for the 17 million households that have access to the Internet but can’t afford to connect. We focus on America’s most unconnected communities, where more than 25% of people don’t have Internet.

From 2012-2020 we led the effort that closed the classroom connectivity gap. In 2013, only 10% of students had access to digital learning in their classrooms. Today, thanks to an unprecedented bi-partisan effort by federal, state, and school district leaders, supported by K-12 advocacy organizations, the classroom connectivity gap is closed – 47 million students are connected, and 99.3% of America’s schools have a high-speed broadband connection.

No Home Left Offline Logo_White

Affordability is two-thirds of America's digital divide

0%

THE BROADBAND AFFORDABILITY GAP

17M

Unconnected households have access to Internet service but cannot afford to connect.

OUR FOCUS

No Home Left Offline

Our work will be modeled on the successful playbook we used to close the K-12 digital divide, and we will focus on America’s most unconnected communities, where more than 25% of households don’t have a home broadband connection. We will begin by focusing on the following actions:

Teamwork_Values Icon
Building a public-private partnership to close the broadband affordability gap.
Data Icon
Developing a means to identify unconnected households on a recurring basis.
Map icon

Helping states design their Broadband Plans for the Capital Projects Fund and bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Gears Icon
Launching demonstration projects and creating playbooks for states, cities, school districts, housing authorities, and other trusted institutions of innovative programs to increase broadband adoption at scale.

Resources

Funding to Close the
Broadband Affordability Gap

Perhaps most importantly, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 created the $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit Program to ensure that all households could afford a home broadband connection. This is “the nation’s largest-ever broadband affordability program,” and the bipartisan infrastructure bill will increase funding for the program by $14.2 billion in order to ensure it can help close the affordability gap for at least the next five years.

The Emergency Broadband Benefit, to be renamed the Affordable Connectivity Program as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, will provide $30 per month to ISPs for any household with an income below 200% of the poverty line. This is significantly more than the price of existing affordable connectivity plans from most ISPs and will likely result in ISPs offering home broadband plans at this price that meet the new broadband standard of 100 Mbps download / 20 Mbps upload being established by Congress as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Together, the Emergency Broadband Benefit and higher capacity affordable broadband plans from ISPs will ensure that most households will have sufficient bandwidth to learn, work, and access healthcare and critical services remotely. The bipartisan infrastructure bill also makes clear that Congress understands the need for proactive efforts to drive broadband adoption.

The $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act provides five years of funding for state and local entities to tackle the barriers to broadband adoption. This would be an unprecedented investment in driving broadband adoption and will enable state and local governments, non-profits, community-based organizations, and the private sector to provide the outreach, training, and enrollment assistance required to reach and connect unconnected households to home broadband services.

In addition, Congress is paving the way for innovative approaches to driving broadband adoption by making the installation of free Wi-Fi networks in low-income apartment buildings an allowable use of the $42.5 billion of infrastructure funding in the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $10 billion Capital Projects Fund already enacted in the American Rescue Plan Act. Modeled after the success of free Wi-Fi networks in hotels, airports, and coffee shops, the installation of free Wi-Fi networks in low-income apartment buildings has the potential to rapidly close 20% of the digital divide without requiring unconnected households to overcome the myriad of challenges that prevent them from enrolling in federal broadband programs and ISPs’ affordable broadband plans.

Over the last year, a bipartisan effort in Congress has made closing the digital divide one of the signature priorities of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting with the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and continuing with the American Rescue Plan Act and the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Congress is poised to provide over $85 billion in new funding for broadband infrastructure, affordability, and adoption programs.

There are also no shortage of funding options for K-12 home connectivity solutions. Download our  Federal Funding for K-12 Home Connectivity Summary or get started using our Federal Funding for K-12 Home Connectivity Matrix

policy resources

Research & Reports

Filed FCC Comments

  • Comments of EducationSuperHighway in Response to NTIA’s Proposed BEAD Challenge Process Guidance (May 2023) Comments
  • Establishing the Digital Opportunity Data Collection Ex Parte Presentation to Karen Sprung and Kirk Burgee (September 2022)
    Notice | Presentation
  • Affordable Connectivity Program and the Your Home, Your Internet Pilot Program Ex Parte Notice to Julian Faulb, Chief of Staff and Legal Advisor for Wireline and National Security (August 2022) Notice
  • Affordable Connectivity Program Enrollment Process Challenges Ex Parte Notice and One-Pager to Rashann Duvall, Eduardo Bartholme, Lyle Ishida, James Lee, Jamile Kadre, Tiffany Johnson, and River Crane (July 2022) Notice | One-Pager
  • Increasing ACP Adoption and Improving the ACP Enrollment User Experience Ex Parte Presentation to Diane Holland, Jamile Kadre, Jessica Campbell, Jodie Griffin, River Crane, Sherry Ross, and Joanna Fister (July 2022) Notice | Presentation
  • Affordable Connectivity Program Wizard FCC Ex Parte Presentation to Ramesh Nagarajan, Legal Advisor – Wireline to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (June 2022) Notice | Presentation
  • Improving the ACP Enrollment User Experience Ex Parte Presentation to Austin Bonner, Justin Faulb, and Rhonda Hill (June 2022) Notice | Presentation
  • Increase Awareness and Enrollment in the ACP Program Ex Parte Notice to Austin Bonner, Justin Faulb, Morgan Bodernarin (June 2022) Notice
  • EducationSuperHighway Reply Comments on the Implementation of the Affordable Connectivity Program (April 2022) Comments
  • EducationSuperHighway Comments on the Implementation of the Affordable Connectivity Program (March 2022) Comments
  • Maximizing the Availability of the Affordable Connectivity Program Ex Parte Notice to Austin Bonner and Trent Harkrader (January 2022) Notice
  • Bulk Wi-Fi Purchasing in Low-Income Buildings for the Affordable Connectivity Program Ex Parte Notice to Austin Bonner and Trent Harkrader (January 2022) Notice


EMERGENCY CONNECTIVITY FUND

 

EMERGENCY BROADBAND BENEFIT PROGRAM

 

E-RATE

Policy Papers

Reports