Verizon will continue offering $20 home internet to low-income families after the U.S. Affordable Connectivity Program ends. Plus, new subscribers may receive an additional discount that brings Verizon’s discounted plan down to just $0.
Four years ago, the U.S. government started providing $30 monthly home internet discounts for low-income families under the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. These subsidies were later folded into the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which currently services about 23 million households.
Unfortunately, the ACP is running out of money and slowly winding down. Home internet discounts will fall to $14 for the month of May—a significant reduction that could leave millions of households with a prohibitively expensive internet bill.
Verizon now says that ACP customers on its Forward plan will not experience a price hike in May. In fact, Verizon Forward will maintain its “discounted” pricing after ACP subsidies end. Qualifying customers will pay as little as $20 a month, and some new customers will pay $0 for their first six months (you’ll find this offer on the Verizon Access landing page). The Verizon Forward package is available in Fios, 5G, and LTE flavors. It has no data caps, equipment charges, or annual contracts. If possible, you should aim for the Fios package, as it includes concurrent internet speeds of 300Mbps.
The requirements for Verizon Forward won’t change. Households with an income 200% below the federal poverty line, or those with certain government benefits (like SNAP), should qualify for Verizon Forward. Additionally, Verizon has committed to providing the full $30 discount to prepaid customers in the month of May. This applies to Straight Talk, Tracfone, Total by Verizon, Simple Mobile, SafeLink, Walmart Family Mobile, Net10, GoSmart and Page Plus.
Note that ACP-eligible customers may also qualify for the Lifeline program, which provides a $9.25 monthly discount for home internet. Verizon also has a Military and Veterans discount that can be stacked on top of Verizon Forward.
Verizon isn’t the first ISP to promise post-ACP discounts. AT&T will also continue its home internet discounts after the ACP ends, and other ISPs are expected to follow suit. However, some ISPs will not make this commitment, and households that are signed up for ACP discounts should reach out to their provider to ask if pricing will change.
While it’s great to see ISPs answer the call for lower pricing tiers even after government pressure subsides, it’s unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation in the first place. Considering that vast swaths of the country offer little-to-no competition for internet service, we’re seemingly destined to find ourselves in this situation time and time again as low-income households are steadily priced out of connectivity. Burgeoning offerings from both 5G and satellite home internet providers are poised to help, but we’ve seen recent price increases there as well. It feels as though mandates such as the Affordable Connectivity Program are still needed.
Source: Verizon
