Affordable Connectivity Programing ending; participants left in a lurch

Almost a quarter of all Ohio households get their home internet at low or no cost through the Affordable Connectivity Program, but that program runs out of money with the close of the month on Friday.

The White House announced Friday voluntary commitments to customers from over a dozen internet service providers to offer plans at $30 or less to low-income households through 2024 so that families across America can continue accessing low-cost internet.

Verizon, being one of them, launched what they call Verizon Forward.

"Which helps people for a period of six months, if they qualify, to keep that bill at $0, that's for a limited time only and then after that it can be $20 per month," said Jeff Kew, Verizon's Great Lakes communications manager.

These internet service providers cover up to 10 million of the 23 million ACP households.

"It's going to crush me, it's going to change my lifestyle," said James Schultz of Lakewood.

The Navy veteran is on a fixed income and has relied on the $ 30-a-month discount on his internet bill provided under the ACP, which has been his lifeline.

"Ordering my meds, checking my test results, my housing is going to be a pain in the butt because they went digital," he said.

With the program out of money, Schultz has spent this past week looking for other options. One provider quoted him $50 a month.

"Which is totally out. I can't, I can't do that," he said.

Like so many, he was at his wits end but was happy to learn Friday that along with big names like Spectrum, Cox and Comcast taking part in the program is his provider AT&T, which was confirmed in a phone call.

"According to them they said yep, your still at $10 bucks a month," said Schultz.

His concern now is this new discount will expire before Congress acts. Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and JD Vance are cosponsors of a bipartisan, bicameral bill to fund an extension of the ACP, which Vance told News 5 earlier this month will eventually pass.

"We're working on this in multiple angles and you know look whether this thing lapses for a few days or a few months I do think we're going to find a way to re-authorize the program," said Vance. "But the longer it lapses the worse it is for the people of Ohio."

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