In an effort to remove financial barriers to internet access among low-income households in the U.S. the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is administering a new program to help pay for new or existing internet service. It’s called the Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP.

The Affordable Connectivity Program is designed for households with income at or below 200% of the federal poverty line, or, for households in which someone is currently receiving any of a wide range of qualifying federal assistance benefits. These include SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, WIC, Housing Choice Voucher, Project-Based Rental Assistance, Veterans Pension or Survivor Benefits, Lifeline, Pell Grant or Free and Reduced Price Lunch. It does not appear to include Social Security Retirement Benefits unless a household member is also receiving one of the qualifying forms of federal assistance just listed. Still, qualifying for ACP is inclusive of millions of U.S. households.

ACP will provide up to $30 per month toward internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying tribal lands. Eligible households can also receive a one-time payment of up to $100 to buy a laptop, desktop computer, or table from a participating provider (not a private sale) if the buyer contributes between $10 and $50 toward the purchase. The list of participating providers varies by state but tends to be inclusive of most telecom companies.

Rather than receiving a direct payment each month qualifying recipients will receive a discount on their monthly internet bill from their participating service provider. The list of service providers is state-by-state, and is extensive. It includes most familiar Internet Service Providers (ISPs) but may not include each and every ISP. Viasat is one of the participating providers so if you qualify based on either the income guidelines or the benefit recipient guidelines, this can be a very helpful discount for your monthly Viasat Satellite Internet service bill.

Qualifying based on income requires knowledge of the Federal Poverty Line amount. A standard amount is set, based on household size, for the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. There are different guideline amounts for Alaska, and for Hawaii, because the cost of living is higher in those states. In the contiguous 48 states, depending on how many people live in your household, the poverty level ranges from $12,800 for a one-person household to $44,660 for a household of eight. Above that, add $4,540 for each additional person. For example, for a household of one, income would need to be below $25,760 (200% of the poverty level for a single-person household) in the contiguous 48 states. For a household of eight the total household income would need to be below $89,320 to qualify for ACP solely based on income. The figures are higher for Alaska and for Hawaii.

However, you can alternatively qualify if you receive one of the federal assistance programs listed earlier. Roughly 68 million Americans receive at least one form of government assistance.

What’s great is that you do not need to start a new service to qualify for ACP; you can talk with your existing provider and make sure you are on a plan that will include the credit from ACP on your bill. Even if you have an unpaid balance with your provider, so long as you qualify for ACP, you can request that your provider apply the ACP discount. If you live in an apartment complex or condo and pay the management for internet services, if your household qualifies for ACP, talk with your landlord or property manager to request they work with their ISP to learn more about benefits available to you.

For those households that use the federal Lifeline internet service assistance program, if you are currently enrolled in Lifeline, you don’t need to apply again for ACP. You can apply your Lifeline benefit to the same service or to a different service. To sort through this, contact your ISP provider about the service they may be able to offer in addition to Lifeline, as part of the ACP. Alternatively, you can contact a different ISP that participates in ACP to apply the benefit to a separate internet service than your Lifeline internet service.

To see if you qualify, look online for affordableconnectivity.gov, and submit an application online or print out a paper version you can mail in. For households already participating in the Lifeline program this step should not be necessary. Contact your participating provider and choose a plan or request for the discount to be applied to your existing service.

We can’t get into all the granular details of each person’s account in this post so allowing for the nuances of individual situations there could be a few things you’ll need to discuss with your provider. Overall, though, if your household qualifies, this program can be a real boost to getting your home connected with Viasat or another ISP.