The scheme is significantly more generous than the current programme – but it may need more funds if it’s to help everyone it targets
Rosenworcel is on a roll: The FCC’s Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel hopes to land the role permanently under the Biden administration, and it shows. She has used her first month in power to kickstart several bipartisan initiatives – which is pretty much all she can do while the FCC board has a 2–2 deadlock. These include a review of the methodology to measure broadband availability, and an inquiry to foster the adoption of OpenRAN. Last week, Rosenworcel got the board to unanimously approve the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, for which the FCC had started preparatory works in the last weeks of Pai’s leadership.
How it will work: The programme was approved in December 2020 by the Congress, which allocated a $3.2bn Emergency Broadband Connectivity Fund. The regulator has now set out the workings of the scheme, in which operators can enrol and get approval from the FCC. Monthly discounts of up to $50 are available for every eligible household, or up to $75 for households in so called Tribal lands. One-off discounts of up to $100 are available for tablets or computers. This is a lot more generous than the current programme known as ‘Lifeline’, which offers up to $9.25 per month, or up to $34.25 per month to households in the Tribal lands. The fund will last for six months after the Government has declared the end of the COVID-19 emergency, or until it is depleted – whichever comes first.
Is there enough funding? Congress has cast the net wide when determining eligibility for the scheme. All households qualifying for the existing Lifeline programme can participate, as well as households qualifying for other benefits, or those who have had significant loss of income during COVID-19. At the very least, around 7m households could qualify – as many as those currently enrolled in Lifeline. If the scheme proves popular, the average monthly discount may therefore be lower than $50. The success of the scheme will also depend on how operators will communicate it: for example, operators in Italy are running widespread advertising campaigns for their broadband voucher scheme. It is probably not a coincidence that the uptake of the Italian scheme has been high so far, with 22% of the funds allocated within the first three months (€44m out of €200m).
Source: https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adopts-report-and-order-emergency-broadband-benefit-program
