Promoting Affordable Connectivity Act of 2024

This bill authorizes annual appropriations for the Affordable Connectivity Program, expands the Universal Service Fund to support it, and makes related changes. It allows the FCC to borrow up to $25 billion from the Treasury for the program, to be repaid from universal service funds within 8 years after certain amendments are implemented. It expands the base of entities that must contribute to the Universal Service Fund to include edge providers, broadband providers, and enterprise broadband service providers, and directs the FCC to prioritize assessing greater contributions from edge providers with annual revenue over $5 billion and from edge services where the assessment is least likely to be passed on to consumers as an explicit fee. It defines key terms such as broadband internet access service, broadband provider, edge provider, edge service, enterprise broadband service, and enterprise broadband service provider. It makes the Affordable Connectivity Program a supported service of the Universal Service Fund and exempts providers participating in that program from certain universal service requirements. It requires the FCC to issue regulations within 2 years to implement these changes, with the expansion of the contribution base to take effect 270 days before the program is added to the Universal Service Fund. It requires participating providers to apply the affordable connectivity benefit to an eligible household's account by the next billing cycle after verification, with FCC guidance due within 18 months. It gives the FCC authority to alter or eliminate any requirement of the Affordable Connectivity Program to improve its functionality, administrability, or sustainability.