As of July 4th, over 34,000 Massachusetts households have enrolled in the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) Program to help families and households struggling to afford internet service during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative encourages communities working to become age-and dementia friendly to raise awareness about this program to help connect older adults to internet access.
The EBB provides eligible households with a temporary, monthly discount of up to $50 towards their broadband service. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers if they contribute more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase price.
The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable (DTC) has developed educational materials, which includes a list of participating Massachusetts EBB providers, and offers the state agency office as a resource to help facilitate any problems consumer may encounter while trying to get enrolled.
Below, please find helpful links and the FCC’s Outreach Toolkit. Please feel free to use these resources to help publicize EBB related information to your networks, including providing the DTC’s Consumer Hotline number, 1-800-392-6066, and the DTC website, www.mass.gov/dtc for additional information or assistance.
- EBB Enrollment website
- FCC’s EBB website: https://www.fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit
- List of participating Massachusetts providers: https://www.fcc.gov/emergency-broadband-benefit-providers#Massachusetts
- FCC’s EBB Press Release: https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/ebb-fcc-co-brand-news-release-template.docx