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FCC's Historic Move
Ever since the e-Rate Program began eighteen years ago, the fund collected $2.25 Billion each year. Beginning with Funding Year 2010 (7/1/2010 – 6/30/2011) it added a Cost of Living Adjustment. On Thursday, December 11, 2014, the Federal Communications Commission took historic action. In a three to two vote, it approved raising the amount collected to $3.9 Billion per year. It also kept the COLA adjustment. Chairman Wheeler was quoted as saying that the increase will only add 16₵ to each user’s monthly bill. We have been talking about the new Category 2 and its five-year $150/student budget. We also stressed that this new “Category Two” is a two-year pilot. The other significant piece in last Thursday’s order was that this will be a five year program through 2019. To us, this should make Category Two much easier to handle. Many districts have already deployed their Wireless LANs. Some just completed doing so. In last July’s Order, the FCC reasoned that the WAPs, etc. of the WLAN should last five years, hence the reason for a five-year budget. So, for the districts which have already installed a WLAN, it should probably be ready for an upgrade sometime between now and 2019. Also, this extension of the Category Two system to 2019 should allow schools and libraries to take advantage of the Managed Wireless LAN option. In that option, a third party manages the Wireless LAN. A district or library could spend 30% of its five-year budget each year on such a service. The FCC released the Order on December 19, 2015. To read it, please go to http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/db1219/FCC-14-189A1.pdf .E-Rate Central weekly newsletter of December 15, 2015 provided links to the commissioners’comments: Approving: Chairman Wheeler Dissenting: Commissioner O’Rielly
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