The Affordable Connectivity Program will stop accepting newcomers Feb. 7. Advocates hope Congress will extend funding.
By Tamara Chuang | Colorado Sun
The federal subsidy to reduce internet bills for nearly 250,000 Colorado households is winding down and funding is set to run out by April. But the first deadline is Wednesday at 10 p.m. when local internet providers must stop accepting new customers.
“We will take applications to the very end,” said Brieana Reed-Harmel, broadband manager at Loveland Pulse, the city’s municipal internet service. “They are still trickling in little by little every day.”
Loveland Pulse currently has about 500 low-income customers enrolled in the federal Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP, a $14.2 billion program that launched two years ago to help low-income households get online for school, work, telehealth appointments and more. Reed-Harmel isn’t sure what will happen next, but for now the municipal internet provider has a massive yellow banner on its site to notify its current ACP subscribers that the funds will run out in April.