BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — More than 548,000 Louisiana households may lose affordable internet access at the end of April, when funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program is set to expire, according to a report.
Millions of seniors, veterans and low-income Americans who depend on the ACP may be out of luck if funding for the program isn’t renewed.
What is the Affordable Connectivity Program?
“The Affordable Connectivity Program is a federal program designed to help offset the cost of wireless. Originating as a pandemic-era relief program, the ACP became a permanent federal subsidy as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021,” said a report from WhistleOut . The search engine is dedicated to finding services.
The ACP currently offers a $30 per month benefit for qualifying households to nullify the cost of internet, according to the report.
Low-income households can qualify in a variety of ways, including having income lower than 200% of federal poverty guidelines.
Cell phone ban in public schools bill passes Senate How many Louisiana households could be affected?
In the report, analysts from WhistleOut looked at the ACP to find out how each U.S. state would be impacted if the program ends.
According to the report, 548,192 households in Louisiana would be affected if the ACP program were to end. To fund the ACP for another year, it would cost about $19,349,120.
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Check out the top 10 U.S. states with the largest number of ACP households that could be heavily impacted if the ACP program were to end:
- 1. California: 2,803,599
- 2. New York: 1,701,192
- 3. Florida: 1,685,581
- 4. Texas: 1,666,632
- 5. Ohio: 1,141,482
- 6. North Carolina: 889,073
- 7. Michigan: 887,332
- 8. Pennsylvania: 737,194
- 9. Georgia: 699,446
- 10. Illinois: 676,391
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