As I write this blog, the ACP program that provides a discount for millions of homes will disappear unless Congress takes action to continue it. By now, most big ISPs have announced how they will handle broadband for low-income homes after the end of ACP.

Altice Optimum provides the Optimum Advantage Internet plan that provides 50 Mbps download speed for $14.99 per month. Customers can choose to double the speed by doubling the price.

AT&T. The company says it will still offer its Access from AT&T plan for $30 per month that provides unlimited usage at 100 Mbps. Those speeds are available on fiber, with best effort-speeds on DSL or FWA cellular wireless.

Charter will continue to offer the Spectrum Internet Assist plan, which offer 50 Mbps download speeds for $24.99 per month. Customers can double the speed for an extra $5 per month.

Comcast is going to keep its Internet Essentials plan that provides speeds up to 50 Mbps for $9.95 per month. Plan participants can also buy a low-cost basic computer. Comcast is going to let customers who were enrolled in ACP rollover to Internet Essentials without having to go through the qualification process again. But it looks like customers will have to choose the rollover option and it’s not automatic.

Comcast also just announced a new plan called NOW Internet that will offer 100 Mbps service for $30 or 200 Mbps service for $45. These are not low-income programs and are available to everybody. This seems to be the company’s response to losing customers to FWA wireless plans being offered by T-Mobile and Verizon.

Cox Communications will continue to offer two plans. First is its Connect2Compete plan that provides a $9.95 monthly broadband connection to families with a child in grades K-12 who qualifies for the national School Lunch Program or other federal programs. Cox also has a ConnectAssist plan for $30 per month for other families who qualify for a list of federal programs. Both plans deliver speeds up to 100 Mbps.

Frontier will allow customer who were using ACP to instead get the $9.25 FCC Lifeline discount. It’s not clear if that transition is automatic or if customers will have to apply for the Lifeline discount.

Mediacom offers the Xtreme Connect plan for low-income households for $28.99 per month. This includes a $14 charge for the WiFi modem. Households with students who qualify for the federal School Lunch Program are not charged the modem fee, bringing the price down to $14.99.

T-Mobile has several plans for customers who are already using the ACP discount. Customers of Assure Wireless will continue to get the equivalent of the ACP discount through August 2024, at which point they will covert to get the FCC’s $9.25 Lifeline discount. ACP customers using Metro by T-Mobile will continue to receive the ACP discount through June 2024. For July and August, the discount will drop to $15 per month.

Verizon will continue to offer its Verizon Forward plan that gives customers a 300/200 Mbps connection for $20 per month. Existing ACP customers will get this plan free for at least six months.

Windstream gave ACP customers until April 30 to transfer their ACP benefit to its Kinetic Benefit program. Any customers who made the transition will be able to keep the identical discount received under ACP for as long as they keep the plan at the same address and don’t make any changes to the plan. It’s not clear what happens to customers who did not make the benefit transfer.

This is a wide range of responses to the end of ACP. Some big ISPs are reverting to affordable rates for low-income households such as the $9.95 plan from Comcast. Others are extending the ACP from a few months up to six months. A few are only offering Lifeline as the alternative to ACP. A few are making the transition automatic to low-cost plans while it appears others will require customers to apply for the discounts.

While I won’t list them, smaller ISPs are making similar changes. For example, I know one ISP that will keep the ACP discount the same for customers as long as they keep service. I also know smaller ISPs that will let ACP lapse with no low-income replacement plan.