Sen. Ed Markey joined leaders in Lynn to call for an extension of funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which is set to expire in April and provides funding for internet connectivity for 23 million households, including 336,000 households in Massachusetts.
Markey, the junior senator from Massachusetts, met with city officials at Lynn Public Library on Tuesday and called on Congress to pass the extension.
“We are here today for this very, very special gathering to highlight how necessary it is that in a digital era, everyone has access to that digital technology,” Markey said. “We’re here in Lynn because this city has undertaken some fantastic work to connect all of its residents to broadband. They invested early to lay the groundwork for digital equity because Lynn knows how vital internet access is to our society.”
The ACP is a $14.2 billion program established by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 and managed by the Federal Communications Commission. It provides monthly discounts on internet bills all across the country, Markey said, and allows households to have access to consistent, high-speed broadband.
Markey said that internet access has to be treated like a public good.
“The internet is increasingly the location of job applications, doctor’s appointments, government services, communications with our loved ones, you name it, it probably has an online presence as well,” Markey said.
He added that the unfortunate reality is that not everyone has access to affordable and reliable broadband services.
“The digital divide between those who can afford internet and those who cannot imposes serious harm on our unconnected friends, families, and neighbors,” he said.
Markey said the ACP acronym has another meaning.
“That’s why I say that ACP also stands for accessing countless possibilities for every family and for everyone who lives in those families here in Lynn and all across our country,” Markey said.
Lynn Mayor Jared Nicholson said roughly 7,300 households in Lynn currently participate in the ACP, which is 40% of eligible households and higher than the statewide rate of 28% and the national rate of 37%.
“Our residents need to be online. They need it to go to school and do their schoolwork. They need it to access health care, the way health care is going, they need it to find jobs, a lot of them need it to do their jobs with remote work,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson posed a moral question regarding digital equity.
“Will we let financial barriers block residents from accessing the world? That’s the moral question that’s before the United States right now, and the answer so far has been no. We have the ACP that’s going to allow folks to overcome that barrier so they can enter that world. And Lynn is proud to take advantage of it,” he said.
Nicholson applauded the ambition of residents who want to be plugged in and the community partnerships that have made this program possible in the city. In the last year, he said 1,400 families in Lynn have signed up for the ACP.
“They took that plunge and said yes, I do need to be connected, and yes, I won’t let the financial cost block me from accessing this critical way of interacting with the world, and that’s at risk of disappearing,” Nicholson said.
