An Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) of up to $50/month (up to $75/month for households on Tribal lands) is available to eligible households. The Universal Service Administration Company (USAC) will conduct a webinar for grassroots advocates, navigators, and others helping their local communities get connected. The webinar will cover program basics, a walk-through of the online application process, and resources available to help drive enrollment. The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) program, is administered by USAC. The free webinar will take place on July 8 at 4 pm ET. Register at: https://bit.ly/3warkyF
The EBB Program provides a temporary discount on monthly broadband bills for qualifying low-income households. Eligible households can receive:
- Up to a $50/month discount on broadband service and associated equipment rentals, or up to a $75/month discount if a household is on qualifying Tribal land
- A one-time discount of up to $100 for a laptop, tablet, or desktop computer (with a co-payment of more than $10 but less than $50)
Only one monthly service discount and one device discount is allowed per household. To receive the connected device discount, consumers need to enroll in the EBB Program with a participating provider that offers connected devices (not all service providers offer device discounts). The service provider will provide the discount to the consumer.
The program will end when the fund runs out of money, or six months after the Department of Health and Human Services declares an end to the COVID-19 health emergency, whichever is sooner.
Advocates wanting to know how EBB enrollment is going in their state or locality can check the EBB Tracker. The linked Excel file allows users to view the total enrolled households by the first three digits of a ZIP code (ZIP3). To protect subscriber privacy and to reduce the risk of identification of enrolled households, USAC has redacted any ZIP3s with a population under 20,000. Redacted ZIP3s are identified as “000.”
The FCC Emergency Broadband Benefit page is at: https://bit.ly/365H6jU
The USAC Emergency Broadband Benefit page is at: https://bit.ly/3qAh15U
The EBB Tracker is at: https://bit.ly/3qDChI3