President Biden to announce a low-cost broadband initiative with Youngstown mayor

Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown will be joining President Biden, and Vice President Harris at the White House for the announcement of an internet plan that will help to bring affordable broadband to Youngstown.
As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the President and Vice President worked with Democrats and Republicans to create the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which allows tens of millions of American households to reduce their internet service costs by up to $30/month (or $75/month on Tribal lands). To ensure the most efficient use of those public dollars and to deliver maximum cost savings to families, the Biden-Harris Administration has secured commitments from 20 leading internet providers—covering more than 80% of the U.S. population across urban, suburban, and rural areas—to either increase speeds or cut prices, making sure they all offer ACP-eligible households high-speed, high-quality internet plans for no more than $30/month.
Mayor Brown will be live with the President at the White House, with the announcement live-streaming at 1:30 pm today.
The new plan will allow tens of millions of ACP-eligible households to receive high-speed internet at no cost.
The Biden-Harris Administration is also launching a comprehensive effort to make sure as many ACP-eligible households as possible take advantage of this new program by:
- Launching GetInternet.gov: GetInternet.gov is a simple, easy-to-use website with details on how Americans can sign up for ACP and find participating internet providers in their area.
- Reaching out to eligible households through federal agencies: Households qualify for ACP based on their income or through their participation in one of several other federal programs, like Pell Grants, Medicaid, or Supplemental Security Income. Agencies that manage these programs will be coordinating an effort to reach out to households that qualify for ACP through programs they help administer. For example, the Social Security Administration will email all 1.6 million Supplemental Security Income recipients who have a “My Social Security” account, letting them know that they are eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program.
- Partnering with states and cities: The Administration is partnering with states and cities to spread the word as well. For example, Michigan, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Mesa, Arizona, and New York City will text millions of eligible households.
- Collaborating with public interest organizations: Public interest organizations, including the United Way, Goodwill, Catholic Charities USA, and UnidosUS, will train their national networks to conduct direct enrollment and outreach. And Propel, a mission-driven financial technology company will provide information via the Providers app to connect more than 5 million low-income families with the program.
According to the White House press release, there are approximately 48 million households—or nearly 40 percent of households in the country—will qualify for the ACP either because their income is at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, or because a member of the household meets one of the other criteria below:Participates in one of the following programs:
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps
- Medicaid
- Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
- Federal Public Housing Assistance (FPHA)
- Veterans Pension and Survivors Benefit
- Free and Reduced-Price School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program, including at U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Community Eligibility Provision schools
- Federal Pell Grant (received in the current award year)
- Lifeline
- Certain Tribal assistance programs, including Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance, Head Start (only households meeting the income qualifying standard), Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (Tribal TANF), and Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations
- Meets the eligibility criteria for a participating broadband provider’s existing low-income internet program.
Under the terms of the ACP, an eligible household that signs up for the program will receive a discount of up to $30/month on any internet service plan a participating provider offers. Households on Tribal Lands are eligible for a discount of up to $75/month. As of now, more than 1,300 internet service providers participate in the program, and more than 11.5 million households have signed up to receive the ACP benefit.
The Biden-Harris Administration asked participating internet service providers to either reduce prices and or raise speeds to offer ACP-eligible households a high-speed internet plan for no more than $30/month. For these purposes, the Administration views a sufficiently high-speed plan as one that offers download speeds of at least 100 Megabits per second everywhere that the provider’s infrastructure is capable of it.
- Allo Communications
- AltaFiber (and Hawaiian Telecom)
- Altice USA (Optimum and Suddenlink)
- Astound
- AT&T
- Breezeline
- Comcast
- Comporium
- Frontier
- IdeaTek
- Cox Communications
- Jackson Energy Authority
- MediaCom
- MLGC
- Spectrum (Charter Communications
- Starry
- Verizon (Fios only)
- Vermont Telephone Company
- Vexus Fiber
- Wow! Internet, Cable, and TV