E-rate Order to Tackle ‘Wi-Fi Gap’
A draft E-rate order attempts to tackle the “Wi-Fi gap” in schools and libraries, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a blog post Friday (http://fcc.us/1w7OuSm). He said he circulated the order Friday, for a vote at the July 11 FCC meeting, as expected (CD June 12 p1). The plan commits $1 billion toward Wi-Fi in 2015, with which the agency expects to connect more than 10 million students across the country, officials said. Another $1 billion will go toward Wi-Fi in 2016, with “predictable” support in future years, a senior official told reporters on a conference call on condition of anonymity Friday. That money, in addition to the current $2.4 billion E-rate budget, comes from $2 billion recently found unspent (CD Feb 4 p7).
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"Three out of five schools in America lack sufficient Wi-Fi capability needed to provide students with 21st Century educational tools,” Wheeler said. The current E-rate program has been able to support Wi-Fi in only 5 percent of schools and 1 percent of libraries, and last year there was no money available at all for Wi-Fi, he said. The circulated order will “close the Wi-Fi gap and provide more support for high-capacity wireless broadband for every school and library in America,” he said.
The proposal also begins a “multi-year transition” of all E-rate funding away from legacy technologies like dial-up phone service and paging, said Wheeler. A fact sheet provided by the commission (http://fcc.us/UoFCu6) said the order will speed consideration of consortium applications to drive down prices, increasing transparency on how E-rate dollars are spent, and leverage General Services Administration pricing so schools can buy more for less.
The maximum program match for Wi-Fi will be set at 4-to-1, meaning that for every dollar the poorest schools spend, the program will spend four dollars. That puts the highest government contribution rate at 80 percent, which is a good number for cost-effective purchasing, a senior agency official told us. That’s reduced from the current maximum 90 percent government rate. Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, who now represents the Urban Libraries Council, said that extra 10 percent could have a major negative effect. For urban libraries to go from a 10 to 20 percent match means they have to contribute “twice as much money,” Hundt told us. “ULC is worried that any requirement to increase their matching contribution within mere weeks may put at risk their ability to obtain the funds they need for Wi-Fi,” the group said in a statement. “Especially in urban and rural areas, public libraries are the essential Internet access point for the 99 percent of Americans who have suffered from increasing income and wealth inequality since the Great Recession."
The new plan won’t increase the $2.4 billion budget, a senior FCC official said. That meets Commissioner Ajit Pai’s requirement (CD June 19 p1) that the program not increase the budget if it wants a “yes” vote from him. A Pai spokesman declined to comment, saying his office hadn’t yet received a copy of the draft order. The E-rate order will have no impact on the USF contribution rate, an FCC official said.
The order contemplates “faster, simpler, more efficient applications,” the FCC’s fact sheet said. Simplified applications is a concept that’s been supported by both the Republican and Democratic commissioners. The order would make multi-year applications easier, speeds review of all applications and move to electronic filing of all documents, an official said. If the order is approved next month, it would allow new rules to be in place in time for the 2015-16 school year, the agency said.