The FCC should stop leasing Educational Broadband Service...
The FCC should stop leasing Educational Broadband Service spectrum, mostly to Sprint, and auction it instead, using the proceeds to pay for broadband in the schools, said a new paper by the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology (CBIT). President…
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Barack Obama has set a goal of getting 99 percent of American schools and libraries online at speeds of 100 Mbps within the next five years, said the paper by CBIT Executive Director Fred Campbell, former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau (http://bit.ly/NuJGVq). “The current level of E-rate funding is far too limited to meet the President’s goal, however, and a substantial increase in universal service funding would threaten the affordability of broadband services in rural areas and to low-income communities,” the paper said. “Strangely, the FCC has ignored an obvious source of at least $11 billion in educational funding for which the FCC already has ultimate authority: The 117.5 MHz of spectrum allocated for the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) in the 2.5 GHz band.” CBIT said an incentive auction, like the pending auction for TV spectrum, would be the perfect tool for selling the EBS spectrum. “A portion of the auction revenues would be used to compensate existing educational licensees for relinquishing their spectrum rights,” CBIT said. “The remaining portion could be used to provide students nationwide with the world-class Internet infrastructure envisioned by the ConnectED initiative on a revenue neutral basis without threatening other universal service policy goals.” All CBIT funding to date comes from nonprofit organizations, Campbell said. Sprint provides some $24 million annually in cost-free wireless services and devices to thousands of elementary and secondary schools across the U.S. each year, a spokesman responded. “Notwithstanding CBIT’s concerns for improving wireless broadband for schools and libraries, we must note that forcing licensees to sell their 2.5 GHz spectrum -- apart from being legally dubious -- wouldn’t come close to generating the revenue needed to sustainably support broadband access for America’s educational institutions,” the spokesman said. “It is also surprising to see an advocacy group like CBIT recommend a public policy which fundamentally contradicts the free market principles it proclaims to support."