New Interactive Map Shows Estimated Enrollment by Congressional District in At-Risk Broadband Affordability Program

Red States Lead with Highest Enrollment Rates

WASHINGTON — The Digital Progress Institute, a bipartisan think tank focused on bridging the policy divide between telecom and tech, has launched a new interactive Affordable Connectivity Congressional Map.  The map illustrating estimated enrollment in the Affordability Connectivity Program (ACP) by congressional district and state. A popular broadband affordability program with overwhelming bipartisan support, the ACP was created in 2021 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and it is now at risk of running out of funding next year if Congress fails to act. Since its inception, over 16 million people have enrolled in the program nationwide.

“The Digital Progress Institute launched the interactive map to demonstrate to members of Congress that their constituents rely on the ACP and it’s a program worth saving,” said Joel Thayer, president of Digital Progress Institute. “The map will be continually updated as new enrollment figures become available, but what’s clear from this map today is that the ACP knows no political ideology or geographic boundaries – over 16 million Americans from Louisiana to Kentucky to Ohio are participating in this program and enrollment shows no signs of slowing down.”

Time to Get Rid of Huawei and TikTok

China’s digital espionage strategy is simple—turn seemingly innocuous products into spying devices. Yes, that includes weather balloons. But it’s so much more. TikTok, for instance, is pitched as an innocent social media app, when in reality it is a sophisticated tool to gain access to your wireless device. FBI Director Chris Wray has warned that Chinese apps like TikTok can use their algorithms for “influence operations” and to conduct espionage operations.

China leverages this ploy in the telecom sector too. Huawei and ZTE, China’s largest telecom companies, pitched themselves as a cheaper manufacturing option for carriers seeking to add more capacity to their networks. In fact, Chinese spies use this technology to surveil citizens wherever it is deployed. As Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines stressed, China uses communication networks to “develop[] frameworks for collecting foreign data and pulling it in…to target audiences for information campaigns or for other things.”

Bipartisan Tech Policy Is Built On Trust

Trust among our representatives is the key to legislative success. Last Congress, we saw Democrats and Republicans trust one another enough to solve real problems facing our nation. Each side of the aisle expended extraordinary political capital within their own parties to address critical issues, most notably in the tech and telecom space.

That trust was validated and rewarded. For example, 42 million Americans are on the wrong side of the digital divide. Adults without Internet access cannot participate in today’s economy. They cannot leverage remote education, learn of and apply for employment opportunities, or conduct a video visit with their physician. This drove a bipartisan Congress to include the single largest investment in our broadband networks to date as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

Congress also worked together to combat the national security threat posed by China’s Herculean control over chips and semiconductor supply chains. Chips are becoming an increasingly finite resource, and China is buying almost all the supply.

In short, trust allowed Congress to get things done.

We Need the Affordable Connectivity Program!

Writing with Diane Holland, President-Elect of FCBA – The Tech Bar, Joel argues that keeping American families and veterans connected is too important to allow the ACP to lapse.

An Incremental National Spectrum Strategy

This week, the Digital Progress Institute filed comments on the National Spectrum Strategy. Among other things, DPI encouraged the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to learn from strategies that have worked in the past, such as the Federal Communications Commission’s 5G FAST Plan, that unleased hundreds of megahertz for 5G, unlocked 1200 megahertz for next-gen Wi-Fi, and set America on the path to win the spectrum arms race.

Joel Testifies on Banning TikTok

DPI President Joel Thayer testified on March 28, 2023 before the Montana State legislature on SB 419, a measured bill that seeks to address an important public-policy concern—the Chinese government’s use of Chinese-owned technology to surveil American citizens.

As he explains, TikTok has been used to spy on American journalists, track American users and send their information back to the Chinese mainland, and repeatedly misrepresented its actions to Congress. What is more, the First Amendment presents no barrier to Montana or any other State banning TikTok based on national security concerns.