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Biden's vow of affordable internet for all is threatened by the looming expiration of subsidies

President Joe Biden recently traveled to North Carolina to promote his goal of affordable internet access for all Americans, but the promise for 23 million families across the U.S. is on shaky ground.

That’s because a subsidy that helps people with limited resources afford internet access is set to expire this spring.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides $30 a month for qualifying families in most places and $75 on tribal lands, will run out of money by the end of April if Congress doesn’t extend it further.

“I think this should be high priority for Congress,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat who has worked with a bipartisan group of governors to promote the program, said in a phone interview. “To many families, $30 a month is a big deal.”

AdmiralShat ,

My power company put in fiber. Now my internet is a coop utility. 0 reason this shouldn’t be nation wide, especially for coops

givesomefucks ,

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    betterdeadthanreddit , (edited )

    Maybe I’m missing the part where the federal program will choose one state to continue funding and exclude the others. Can you help me find it please?

    Otherwise this would look like it’s either a failure to comprehend on your part or an attempt to misinterpret what’s being reported in a way to stir up discontent among people who just skip from the headline and blurb to the comments here.

    givesomefucks ,

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    betterdeadthanreddit ,

    Biden is doing victory laps because he’s trying to bring it back in one state that is coincidentally one he has to win but polls horribly.

    This part. Show me where he’s bringing it back for one state and not others.

    givesomefucks ,

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    betterdeadthanreddit ,

    I’ve seen you make incorrect claims about what he’s doing based on your misunderstanding of what is in the article that started this thread. Your clarification is that you also misinterpreted a different article. I can accept that acknowledgement and hopefully now you are better informed.

    That’s the charitable interpretation anyway, not enough information yet to say that you’re engaging in bad faith.

    givesomefucks ,

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    Melkath ,

    Kinda like when he sanctioned 4 people in Israel and went "there, fine, I sanctioned Israel. Happy?"

    Or when he started to actually run the program he failed to run for 3 years and said "there, fine, I am forgiving student loan debt. Happy?"

    Or when he passed legislation to make it illegal for railway workers to strike in perpetuity and got them a 1 time pay raise and said "there, fine, I fixed the dangerous and unfair practices of the railway companies. Happy?"

    Rentlar , (edited )

    I love how Biden gets the blame for the Republican Congress doing next to nothing legislatively, figuratively sitting cross armed on the floor for at least FOUR MONTHS now. Also the Republicans being at the direction of Agent Orange not to pass anything that could make Biden look good. Hooray.

    I’m not impressed with everything that Biden has managed to do during then, but it kind of amazes me that he could accomplish anything at all against this level of wilful obstruction against the US legislative process.

    givesomefucks ,

    but it kind of amazes me that he could accomplish anything at all against this level of wilful obstruction against the US legislative process.

    You’re talking about the guy who spent all last primary saying he could negotiate with Republicans…

    He pretty much gives them everything they want the few times he tries to make a deal, like wanting to give a president the power to close borders whenever they feel like. You know eventually a Republican will be president right? Yet Dems get nothing out of that deal, Biden is just giving away something trump dreamed he could do, for precisely zero reasons.

    Rentlar ,

    He may have a record of being able to negotiate with Republicans in the past, but now he’s dealing with a bunch of stubborn babies, which I don’t know if Biden is cut out for it.

    Grimy ,

    Internet has always struck me as something that should be nationalized and supplied by the state (for free)

    Everyone needs it and the whole nation just gets squeezed by these companies.

    Wrench ,

    And requires a lot of infrastructure on public roads and poles. Why this is still private after it was clear ISPs operated like gangs with turf is beyond me. It was clear that it should be nationalized 2 decades ago.

    ChonkyOwlbear ,

    The Constitution explicitly calls for the creation of the post office and postal roads. The same rationale that enabling fast reliable communication is a duty of government could easily be extended to the internet. It Biden pushed for this, emphasizing how it would enable people living in small rural towns to work remotely, he would steal a large amount of traditionally Republican voters.

    Wrench ,

    Even in high density cities. Google fiber failed to bring fast and cheap internet to most of the country because the ISP mafias made it impossible.

    Ohh, you need access to this public pole? Well, by law (that we lobbied for), you have to have a representative from each ISP connected to that pole to be present. Looks like we’re booked for a year. Oh, sorry, something came up and we weren’t able to make the meeting you set up a year ago. Guess you’ll have to try again, but oh look, we’re booked for another years. Sowee

    GlitzyArmrest ,
    @GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world avatar

    We shouldn’t be subsidizing giant corporations in the first place. How about just making proper, consumer protecting regulations instead?

    Melkath ,

    Because that would be actually doing something that isn't killing brown people across the ocean.

    girsaysdoom ,

    Looking at the policy on the website here it looks like it’s actually fairly reasonable. If you make less than x, are using a listed governmental assistance program, or qualify for the low-income isp plan then the cost is $30/month for 100Mbps Internet. The benefit that’s listed in the article is the current subsidy that would remove the rest of the cost.

    GlitzyArmrest ,
    @GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world avatar

    Well, that’s not really the problem. The problem is that the government is covering the difference (through subsidizing the mega-corps that offer this).

    KoboldCoterie ,
    @KoboldCoterie@pawb.social avatar

    Alternately, they could introduce more pricing regulations and antitrust crackdowns on internet providers, introduce legislation to explicitly allow municipal internet access, etc.

    We have the 6th most expensive internet in the world; if we had cheaper internet (on par with what other first world countries offer), we wouldn’t need these subsidies because it’d be cheap enough anyway.

    Blackbeard , (edited )
    @Blackbeard@lemmy.world avatar

    introduce legislation to explicitly allow municipal internet access, etc.

    Municipal broadband is illegal in North Carolina. In the early 2000s one small city pushed forward with municipal broadband, and the North Carolina Telecommunication Association, an industry lobby group, lobbied the North Carolina General Assembly for a state bill to make it nearly impossible for a city to run its own internet service. Over the course of six years, the telecommunication industry gave $1.6 million to state candidates and political parties. AT&T gave over $520,000 and Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum) and CenturyLink each gave over $300,000. Then, in 2011, both chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly were won by Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction. The bill passed and was signed into law.

    Proving once again that until Republicans are voted out of office en masse, only an infinitesimal fraction of the programs and initiatives that real people want will ever see the light of day. Unfortunately there’s only so much Democrats in the White House and Congress can do as long as people keep voting against their own self interest.

    edit to add:

    Oh, and how’s this for an interesting timeline:

    2006: City of Wilson begins municipal broadband program

    2011: Thom Tillis (Speaker of the House) helps pass S.L. 2011-84 to effectively ban municipal broadband

    2015: The FCC stepped in to green light Wilson’s program and preempt S.L. 2011-84, and Tillis was elected to the US Senate

    2016: A federal appeals court ruled that the FCC overstepped its authority in preempting NC’s ban, and Tillis cheered

    2020: Tillis re-elected

    2023: Tillis brags about Biden’s BIL, which sent $1.53 billion to NC via the BEAD Program, and NC DIT’s own BEAD 5-Year Plan had this to say:

    The result [of S.L. 2011-84] is a limit on the number of options available for broadband service, particularly in areas where the private sector is not providing adequate, affordable service. Several municipalities were grandfathered and allowed to continue service with certain geographical restrictions. (NCGS 160A-340) Additionally, this statute created a chilling effect for local governments interested in exploring alternative networks like open access networks. Municipalities that own conduit and dark fiber have been reluctant to lease their infrastructure to private internet service providers or create open access networks operated by a private entity for fear of violating the statute.

    KoboldCoterie ,
    @KoboldCoterie@pawb.social avatar

    This is the exact case I was referring to there. Having a public option for internet access, even if it was relatively slow compared to the big name brands, would be a huge step forward in terms of guaranteeing internet access for everyone. So of course the big players are going to go to whatever lengths they can to avoid it ever seeing the light of day. :(

    ech ,

    Officials sold out for $1.6 million? It’s legit depressing how little the rights of their constituents are worth to them. Telcos making billions and these nobs hand everything away for a pittance.

    ech , (edited )

    The subsidies ISPs who spent their time hiking up rates on their customers and blocking access to actual high-speed fiber lines that are already there? What good were those subsidies doing for the people anyhow?

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