City of Milford hopes to offer internet to homes who currently have no access
Mayor Archie Campbell, in partnership with Governor Carney, has announced a new initiative to close the digital divide in Delaware. The new initiative aims to build awareness about the $14 billion Affordable Connectivity Program, a long-term federal benefit that will help to lower the cost of broadband service and help low-income families to afford home internet service.
The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a federal benefit that aims to connect these individuals by providing eligible households with a discount of $30/month toward their home Internet bill or $75/month for households on Tribal lands. In addition, the benefit provides a one-time $100 discount toward a connected device through a participating provider. At this time, only 26 percent of eligible households have applied for the benefit due to a lack of awareness, lack of trust in the program, or inability to enroll due to application barriers.
“High-speed home Internet allows Americans to work remotely, send their children to school and access healthcare, job training, and critical government services,’’ said Mayor Campbell. “We are committed to closing the broadband affordability gap in Milford so that every resident has equal access to the opportunities of the digital age.”
A key component of the plan will be the creation of a unique public-private partnership that will work to close the broadband affordability gap. A recent report from the national nonprofit, EducationSuperHighway, highlighted that approximately 28 million of the 123 million households in the United States do not have high-speed broadband. 18 million of these households, home to 47 million people, are offline because they cannot afford an available internet connection.
This broadband affordability gap is concentrated in Milford’s underserved communities and disproportionately impacts people of color. Previous efforts to provide the resources households need to connect have fallen short.
“Denham [Dodd, the City’s Technical Support Specialist] was instrumental in getting the ACP program to market to the Haitian community by printing literature in Creole,” said Mayor Campbell.
The new initiative will focus on ensuring Milford’s residents are aware they might be eligible for the benefit and engaging trusted community partners to support outreach. A household is eligible if one member of the household meets at least one of the criteria below:
- Has an income that is at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines;
- Participates in certain assistance programs, such as SNAP, Medicaid, Federal Public Housing Assistance, SSI, WIC, or Lifeline;
- Is approved to receive benefits under the free and reduced-price school lunch program or the school breakfast program, including through the USDA Community Eligibility Provision;
- Received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year;
- Meets the eligibility criteria for a participating broadband provider’s existing low-income program; or
- Participates in one of several Tribal specific programs, such as Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance, Tribal Head Start (only households meeting the relevant income qualifying standard), Tribal TANF, or Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations.
To get started, households can visit GetACP.org, EducationSuperHighway’s pre-enrollment tool to see if they qualify, what documents they will need at the time of application, and to see a list of “free with ACP” home internet plans.
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