5/16 Joint Filing Proposing Financial Safeguards That Allow E-Rate Support for Connections to Close the ‘Homework Gap’

The Open Technology Institute at New America (OTI) and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) submitted this ex parte filing proposing ways that the E-Rate program can fund cost-effective wireless solutions supporting off-campus connectivity to low-income students and library patrons lacking home internet access.

E-Rate support should extend to any cost-effective wireless technology and service that provides internet access to students and library patrons off-premises, which should include wireless networks set up by the E-Rate applicant itself or its partners (referred to herein as “anchor-enabled networks”). Accordingly, the Commission should not “limit eligibility to Wi-Fi hotspots receiving mobile services,” as the NPRM proposes, but to “wireless” services.¹

The E-Rate program already mandates various financial safeguards that would allow the Commission to prudently extend E-Rate support in this manner. In particular:

• The competitive bidding framework, the price-as-primary-factor rule, the discount matrix, and the requirement that applicants pay the non-discounted share of the service are measures that ensure applicants make cost-effective spending decisions; and
• The same framework that currently governs an applicant’s cost-effective purchase of on-campus leased dark or self-provisioned fiber under E-Rate can also guide its procurement of off-campus internet connectivity solutions via an anchor-enabled network.

If the FCC requires further cost control measure(s) to fund anchor-enabled networks, we suggest that

• The agency should identify and limit the eligible categories of wireless equipment, service, and technologies that enable off-campus connectivity via anchor-enabled networks (while maintaining some flexibility to accommodate for changes in technology and to allow applicants to choose the options that best meet their needs). 
• Additionally, the FCC can limit eligible anchor-enabled network funding to the cost of the most prevalent commercial approach, such as the average cost for hotspot equipment and service provided by a traditional mobile carrier available in the applicant’s local market.

Finally, the Commission should waive or eliminate the E-Rate cost-allocation requirement for off-campus services that enable remote learning. This would allow schools and libraries to use the E-Rate supported services at the school/library location to distribute Internet access through a private LTE or similar service without losing E-Rate support they would otherwise be eligible to receive, and which would not require them to receive additional E-Rate support.

¹ The Hotspot NPRM notes that wireless technologies other than hotspots could be more expensive than traditional hotspots. Our experience is different. Other wireless services can often be more cost-effective than traditional hotspots.