INDIANAPOLIS – Dollie Ross is an Indianapolis resident who lives in a 55 and older community. She is on a fixed income and is always looking to save money where she can. She says that internet service is essential to her daily life.
"It allows me to be able to reach out to church and civic organizations,” Ross said. “We have zoom meetings, even my family has zoom family meetings and stuff like that. Appointments like Telehealth, I had a Telehealth appointment this morning.”
Ross has been taking part in the Affordable Connectivity Program for about three years. Thanks to the federally funded program she pays about 65 dollars a month for phone and internet service. Without assistance from the program, her bill will increase to a much higher rate. This comes at a time when she says her rent is also increasing.
"I am just so disappointed,” Ross said. “Now my bill is going to go right back up to the 100 dollars again.”
She isn’t alone. According to AARP, 423,000 Indiana households are currently receiving assistance from the program. Of those households 42 percent are led by an adult 50 years of age or older.
"They stopped taking enrollment folks in February,” Jason Tomcsi with AARP Indiana said. "Full funding ran out at the end of April. So for this month, for the month of May, people are getting a partial discount and then total funding runs out at the end of the month. “
AARP has been urging congress to continue funding the program. According to a survey earlier this year, nearly 4 in 5 older adults say they want Congress to continue to appropriate money for the program. They say many people may have to go without internet if not.
"For some folks this is something they were relying on,” Tomcsi said. “It could potentially disrupt the service that they have and their ability to just use high speed internet."
According to the advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition, two resolutions to extend the funding are going through the US house and senate. Extending the funding would cost 7 billion dollars. The organization says internet access is a utility like water or electricity.
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"They need that access to information,” Kerwin Olson the Executive Director of Citizens Action Coalition said. Especially with healthcare, job applications, those sorts of things. So, what we see is the digital divide growing. Inequity, lack of fairness. This really is about ensuring equitable and fair access to all citizens. This is an essential service. “
Both of those resolutions that would extend the affordable connectivity act have yet to get a hearing. Over 23 million people across the United States currently use the program.
The spread sheet below breaks down the demographics of the program.
AARP has submitted testimony to congress in an effort to get them to continue to fund the program. You can read that testimony below:
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