NDIA Urges USF-Funded Broadband Affordability Program
Congress should create a new USF-funded broadband affordability benefit program that includes data, voice and text services, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance wrote Monday. Citing comments that it submitted in September to the USF bicameral working group, NDIA said it shouldn't be a direct replication of the affordable connectivity program or Lifeline but instead should incorporate facets of both. The program should apply to mobile and/or home broadband and to all plans that ISPs offer, providing at least $40 a month minimum for non-tribal households and $110 a month for tribal households, the alliance said. The design of such a program should be specifically about affordability, "ensuring households whose primary barrier to broadband adoption is affordability can get and stay online."
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NDIA also called for the establishment of a National Digital Opportunity Foundation to be partially funded by USF. The foundation, potentially housed under the FCC, would support digital inclusion initiatives by providing grants for programs that address such issues as digital skills, AI literacy and the lack of one-on-one support to navigate getting and staying online, NDIA said.