How the New Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Is Expanding Broadband, and What It Means for Your Wallet

Updated May 2026: The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which once provided eligible households up to $30/month toward internet costs, ended on June 1, 2024, after Congress did not approve additional funding. This article has been fully updated to reflect the current state of broadband expansion, the updated FCC speed standard, and the best options available today for reducing your internet bill. 

Summary: The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), signed into law in November 2021, included $65 billion to expand broadband access across the United States, with a focus on rural, tribal, and low-income communities that have historically been left behind. Four years later, that investment is translating into real construction, updated speed standards, and new programs designed to close the digital divide. Here’s what the law does, what has changed since it passed, and what it means for your wallet in 2026. 

What’s in the New Infrastructure Bill?

The IIJA, also called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is widely described as a once-in-a-generation investment. At $1.2 trillion, it covers everything from roads and bridges to clean water to electric vehicle charging networks. Key initiatives include: 

• Expanding access to reliable, high-speed broadband internet 
• Delivering clean water and eliminating lead service lines 
• Repairing and rebuilding roads and bridges with a focus on climate resilience and safety) 
• Investing in public transit to reduce greenhouse emissions 
• Upgrading airports and ports to address supply chain bottlenecks 
• Investing in passenger rail systems 
• Building a national EV charging network along highway corridors 
• Upgrading power infrastructure toward clean, reliable energyCleaning up Superfund and brownfield contamination sites 

For anyone who relies on the internet for work, school, healthcare, or staying in touch the broadband provisions are among the most impactful parts of the bill.  

How the IIJA Addresses the Broadband Access Gap

If you live in a major metropolitan area, you probably have several ISPs competing for your business and access to speeds that would have seemed remarkable a decade ago. But that’s not the reality everywhere in the United States. 

Estimates of how many Americans lack reliable broadband vary widely, partly because coverage mapping has historically been inaccurate. The FCC’s National Broadband Map, launched in 2022 using granular, location-level data rather than the census-block estimates used in prior reports, has given policymakers a clearer, if still evolving, picture of the gap. 

Most people who lack broadband access live in rural areas, remote communities, low-income urban neighborhoods, and Tribal lands. The reasons are structural: geographic barriers like mountains and river valleys make infrastructure expensive to build, low population density means laying miles of cable to serve a handful of households, and private investment has historically followed profitability rather than need. For a deeper look at which states have the best, and worst, internet access, we’ve broken that down separately. 

The IIJA addresses this gap directly, making federal funding available to incentivize providers to build infrastructure where the market alone won’t support it. Providers who receive grants must meet specific requirements, including the speeds they deliver. 

The BEAD Program: $42.45 Billion to Connect the Unconnected

The centerpiece of the IIJA’s broadband strategy is the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, a $42.45 billion federal grant program administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). BEAD allocates funding to every state and territory, which then distribute grants to ISPs and local governments to build infrastructure in unserved and underserved locations. 

We have a full explainer on what the BEAD Program means for rural internet if you want a deeper dive into how the funding flows from federal to local level. 

Where things stand in 2026: As of May 2026, 54 of 56 states and territories have received NTIA approval of their BEAD Final Proposals, and 52 have cleared the additional review required to access their funds. 51 states and territories have signed their award agreements, meaning construction is either underway or imminent across most of the country. You can track your state’s progress at the NTIA BEAD Progress Dashboard. 

The IIJA also set aside $2 billion specifically for the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, a dedicated federal grant program targeting internet infrastructure on Tribal lands, where the access and affordability gaps are among the most severe in the country. 

How the IIJA Changed Internet Speed Standards

What broadband used to mean and what it means now

Since 2015, the FCC defined broadband as 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. This standard was already showing its age well before the pandemic turned remote work and virtual school into everyday life. 

But the IIJA required any ISP receiving federal funding to provide at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload. The FCC finally caught up in March 2024, updating its official broadband benchmark to 100/20 Mbps for the first time in nine years. 

Why upload speed matters more than you might think

Most internet activity, like streaming, browsing, email, runs on download speed, which is how fast your connection pulls data to your device. 

Upload speed is how fast your internet connection can send data out. It matters more than most people realize. Video calls, telehealth, live gaming, and cloud backups all depend on it. A slow upload means frozen screens and choppy audio even when your download speeds are fine. 

Remote work and virtual school during the pandemic made this painfully obvious for a lot of households. The IIJA’s 20 Mbps upload requirement reflects that shift. Good internet isn’t just about what you can receive; it’s about what you can do. If you want to understand how latency and bandwidth factor in, especially gaming and video calls, that’s worth a look too. 

Not sure how much speed your household actually needs? Our internet speed guide can help. 

What the IIJA Means for Your Wallet in 2026

The Affordable Connectivity Program: What happened 

One of the most impactful parts of the IIJA’s broadband strategy for household budgets was the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which launched in December 2021 as a successor to the pandemic-era Emergency Broadband Benefit. At its peak, the ACP provided eligible low-income households with a discount of up to $30/month on internet service (or $75/month for households on qualifying Tribal lands), plus a one-time discount of up to $100 toward a connected device. 

At its peak, over 23 million households relied on the ACP to keep internet affordable. But the program’s $14.2 billion in funding was a one-time congressional appropriation, not a permanent commitment. By early 2024, the FCC warned that the money was running out. Despite bipartisan public support and multiple legislative attempts to extend the program, Congress did not pass a funding renewal, and the ACP officially ended on June 1, 2024, according to the FCC’s ACP program page. 

As of 2026, no single federal program has fully replaced the ACP. Bills to restore or extend the benefit have been introduced in Congress but have not passed. 

What low-income households can do today

If you’re looking for help with your internet bill right now, here are the most reliable options available in 2026: 

FCC Lifeline Program The Lifeline program predates the ACP and continues to operate. It provides a $9.25/month discount on internet or phone service for eligible households. Eligibility is based on income (at or below 135% of the federal poverty guidelines) or participation in programs like SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, or Federal Public Housing Assistance. 

ISP Low-Income Plans Several major providers offer discounted plans independently of federal programs: 

• Xfinity Internet Essentials — approximately $9.95/month 
• Spectrum Internet Assist — approximately $17.99/month 
• AT&T Access — approximately $10/month
  

When combined with the Lifeline discount, some eligible households can access internet for under $1/month. 

State-Level Programs After the ACP expired, a growing number of states have launched their own broadband affordability programs. Availability and eligibility vary by location, so check your state’s broadband office or public utilities commission for local options. 

Who Will Benefit Most?

The IIJA’s broadband provisions were designed for equity. The communities most likely to see the biggest impact include: 

• Rural households are currently served only by DSL, fixed wireless, satellite, or with no service at all. If you’re in that situation right now, our guide to the best internet options for rural areas covers what’s available today while BEAD construction rolls out. 
• Tribal communities, which have some of the lowest broadband adoption rates in the country 
• Low-income urban households, where service may technically be available but is priced out of reach 
• Anyone in a remote or vacation area who has been cut off from reliable connectivity
  

If you live in an urban or suburban area with access to reliable internet service, the IIJA’s benefits may be less immediately visible. But they extend beyond your own connection. Communities with better internet services mean stronger relationships with remote colleagues, loved ones in rural areas, and a country that can compete economically. 

What Type of Internet Can I Expect Under BEAD?

The BEAD Program prioritizes fiber infrastructure as the preferred technology wherever it’s technically feasible. Fiber internet delivers the fastest speeds, the lowest latency, and symmetrical upload and download performance that no other technology currently matches. Fiber is the primary choice in most BEAD-funded builds. 

In areas where fiber isn’t feasible, the program also supports fixed wireless and, under restructured BEAD guidelines, satellite internet options. For rural households weighing their options in the interim, our comparison of satellite internet pros and cons is a useful starting point.

What Does the IIJA Mean for Broadband in 2026?

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act represents the largest federal investment in broadband infrastructure in U.S. history. Its effects are playing out in real time: BEAD-funded construction is getting underway in states across the country, the FCC has updated its speed standard to reflect modern household needs, and millions of homes that previously had no broadband, or only slow, unreliable service, are in line for something meaningfully better. 

The affordability picture is more complicated. The ACP, which made internet genuinely accessible for 23 million households, is gone. The programs that remain, like Lifeline, ISP low-income plans, and a patchwork of state initiatives, help, but don’t fully replace what was lost. That policy gap is still being debated in Congress. 

What isn’t in debate is the direction of travel. High-speed internet is increasingly recognized as essential infrastructure, not a luxury, and the federal government has made an unprecedented commitment to ensuring that every household in America can access it. 

Ready to find a plan that works for you? Check EarthLink’s home internet options or speak with one of our Internet Experts at 877-670-1502.