By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Today, a new and temporary federal program to help people pay for access to broadband internet service from home is being launched nationally.
Residents who already receive federal benefits such as SNAP food stamps or a Pell Grant, or who may have suffered a loss of income during the pandemic can get a $50 a month discount on their broadband bill and a one-time $100 discount as $3.2 billion is being made available until it runs out.
Go to https://www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit, or call, seven days a week at 833-511-0311 or contact your local broadband provider to see if you are eligible.
The benefit is through your local internet and cable provider and a list of providers is being developed and expanded daily. As of Tuesday, over 825 participating providers across the nation, both fixed and mobile, were on board.
A list of those is here at fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit.
This is a first-of-its-kind program, said Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who joined New Hampshire Democratic U.S. Reps. Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster, in a press conference on Tuesday.
Rosenworcel said a recent poll during the pandemic showed one in three households worry about paying their broadband bills “so we think the numbers are big, in the millions” in terms of eligible participants.
She said she would be reporting to Congress about the future and permanent need for the program after the money runs out or six months after the pandemic emergency is lifted when this temporary benefit expires.
“It’s my hope that as these dollars run out we will be, as an agency, going to Congress….to get a longer and more durable broadband program. We will be monitoring it really closely,” Rosenworcel said.
Kuster said the COVID-19 emergency has “lifted the curtain” on the issues of broadband disparity and a lack of access for many in rural areas of the state and country to be able to get telehealth medicine, work from home or have access to remote learning. It also revealed a barrier – that of economics.
Kuster noted Vice President Kamala Harris recently visited New Hampshire Electric Cooperative in Plymouth to talk about the essential need for expanding broadband, looking at the model of the 1930s Rural Electrification Act and finding the funding to pay for the “last mile” of broadband to rural locations and tribal lands.
Congress will need to pass a separate bill to address that issue. There are issues of access and affordability, and this new program will provide for the latter for those “who have broadband going right by their home,” but for whom it is too costly. “We are on the case,” Kuster said.
Pappas said, “clearly, this is an important time to make sure everyone has access.”
But he noted that after the COVID-19 crisis ends, the issue will remain with us including equal access to telehealth, working from home, and remote education.
“It’s not a luxury,” he said. “It’s a necessity. That is why this program arrives at an important time.
Kuster is a member of the House rural broadband taskforce, in the Energy and Commerce Committee and has in her district many locations that have access challenges.
Ed Bartholme of the FCC gave an overview of the program and how it is designed to help households.
He explained it is a discount off the monthly services bill and is temporary and will end once funds are exhausted or six months after the declaration of the end of the coronavirus emergency is made.
