FCC Wireline Bureau Report Confirms E-rate Voice Support Decline Under 4-Year Phaseout
E-rate USF subsidies for school and library voice services plunged under an FCC shift to broadband support that includes a four-year phaseout of voice support ordered in 2014, said a Wireline Bureau report in Tuesday's Daily Digest. It said voice…
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discounts were $708 million (34 percent) of $2.1 billion of total E-rate funding in funding year 2014 but dropped to $259 million (10 percent) of $2.5 billion in FY 2016. Applicants seeking voice support dropped from 24,575 in FY 2014 to 18,884 in FY 2016, "though most of the applicants who no longer apply for voice services continue to seek E-rate support for other services," said the report, which stemmed from the 2014 order. "If the Commission takes no further action after the Bureau issues this report, the phasedown will continue until no funding is available for voice services in funding year 2019." NTCA and TDS (see 1703030013) asked the FCC to keep E-rate voice discounts; T-Mobile urged the commission to carefully consider requests to reconsider the voice phaseout (see 1708090044).