Educational Groups, Others Back E-Rate Support Off-Campus; Telcos, Cable Disagree
Educational entities and most others backed the off-campus E-rate subsidy support proposals of Microsoft and others in one petition and the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) in Colorado in another. Some telco interests opposed the petitions, NCTA voiced concerns and a few others asked the FCC to adopt certain criteria for guidance or an alternative approach. Replies were posted Tuesday and earlier in docket 13-184 in response to a public notice (see 1609190051).
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Initial comments were "strongly supportive of the petition, with only six out of 45 commenters opposing them," replied Education Networks of America. "The supporting comments offer the more convincing policy and legal arguments." The group "agrees with the majority of commenters, and especially with the comments of the Schools, Health, & Libraries Broadband Coalition (the SHLB Coalition), that the Bureau should grant these petitions in order to help close the 'homework gap' between students who have access to broadband outside of school and those who do not." Microsoft and BVSD each said the FCC should OK the requests.
"The time to bridge the Homework Gap is now," Funds for Learning said. "Now is not the time to kick the can down the road." Funds for Learning said a proposed "cost allocation waiver and trial period is unnecessary and unwarranted." The Benton Foundation, Utilities Technology Council, Gigabit Libraries Network, California Emerging Technology Fund and others backed the petitions.
CenturyLink, NTCA and USTelecom opposed the petitions while lauding the goal of petitioners. "CenturyLink shares their concern about the homework gap," the telco said. "Despite good intentions, however, the petitions to use E-rate funded bandwidth without cost allocation would be inconsistent with the statute, raise too many problems, create too many distortions, and create too many risks for the E-rate program. The petitions also cannot be granted by the Bureau on delegated authority, but need review and rulemaking by the full commission." NTCA said the requests should be dismissed because they "contradict" a statutory mandate and "threaten to obliterate the distinction between discrete but complementary USF programs." USTelecom said OK's would be "an inappropriate and inefficient use" of USF support that "would jeopardize the integrity of the E-Rate program" and the sustainability of the fund. "The Petitions should either be denied, or only considered by the full Commission in a formal rulemaking proceeding," it said.
NCTA said initial comments identified many issues the agency must address before approving the petitions. "The Commission must ensure that granting the petitions will not have negative unintended consequences for the E-rate program and for other federal and private efforts to expand broadband in unserved and underserved areas," the cable group said. The Education and Libraries Network urged the FCC to subject the waiver petitions and any similar requests "to a strict test" under criteria it enumerated. The Wireless Internet Service Provider Association backed a "checklist" approach to give school districts clear guidance.
"Most commenters support the Petitions as examples of the conceptual need to allow E-rate to fund off-campus broadband for educational purposes," said T-Mobile. "No commenter, however, refuted T-Mobile’s fundamental point that allowing E-rate support for commercial mobile broadband for off-campus educational use would be more effective than either of these Petitions at addressing the Homework Gap."