04/26/10

Houston Erate Information

This website contains the most up to date erate information

Funding News for the Week

Earlier ths month, the Obama Administration proposed to cut funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program by 63% for FY10.  This would slash funding for EETT from $269.9 milliion to only $100 milliion.  We need your help to convince Congress to reject this funding cut.  ACT NOW!

 As you will recall, the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) invested $650 million in new education technology funding, to be spent between now and September 30, 2010, because this program is so vital to our children's future.  

If Congress agrees to this cut, much of the progress made with the new ARRA dollars - modernizing classrooms, training teachers to use technology and ensuring the technological literacy of our students - will be lost!

ACT NOW! Contact your U.S. Senators and Congressional Representative to oppose the President's proposed cut and support funding EETT at a minimum, its FY09 funding level.

Erate
April 26, 2010

The E-Rate Central News for the Week is prepared by E-Rate Central. E-Rate Central specializes in providing consulting, compliance, and forms processing services to E-rate applicants. To learn more about our services, please contact us by phone (516-801-7804), fax (516-801-7810), or through our Contact Us Web form. Additional E-rate information is located on the E-Rate Central Web site.

Funding Status

Wave 50 for FY 2009 will be released on April 27th for $6.1 million - none for New York. Priority 2 funding is still being approved at 80% and above, and denied at 69% and below. Cumulative funding for FY 2009 is currently $2.67 billion.

USAC is still apparently waiting for the FCC to lower the interim Priority 2 funding threshold for FY 2009 to at least 78% and to authorize the first funding wave for FY 2010.

National Broadband Plan/E-Rate Update

As a first step in implementing its National Broadband Plan, the FCC issued the first in a series of comprehensive Notices of Inquiry ("NOIs") and Notices of Proposed Rulemakings ("NPRMs"). The first set focuses on the High Cost program, one of four Universal Service Fund ("USF") programs. High Cost is the largest and most complex of the USF programs - E-rate is the second largest - which, until recently capped on a temporary basis, had been growing ever larger.

This first proceeding (see FCC 10-58) is aimed at cutting inefficiencies in existing support of voice services and creating a Connect America Fund ("CAF") that directly supports broadband without increasing the size of the USF over the current baseline projection.

The NOI portion deals with "...the use of an economic model to precisely target support for areas where there is no private-sector business case for carriers to provide broadband and voice services." It also "...seeks comment on how to quickly provide consumers in unserved areas with broadband access while the Commission is considering final rules to implement fully the new CAF funding mechanism."

The NPRM portion "...seeks comments on a number of proposals to cut legacy universal service spending in high-cost areas and to shift support to broadband communications. These proposals include capping the overall size of the high-cost program at 2010 levels; re-examining the current regulatory framework for smaller carriers in light of competition and growth in unregulated revenues; and phasing out support for multiple competitors in areas where the market cannot support even one provider."

The FCC's first step does not directly affect E-rate, but is important nevertheless because:

1. The sustainability of USF funding for E-rate at its current level - not to mention the possibility of expanded E-rate funds - is tied necessarily to the size and stability of the entire Fund; and
2. Early action by the FCC in implementing this aspect of the National Broadband Plan is a strong indication that the FCC will move forward on other aspects of the Plan (including E-rate) in an expeditious manner.

Comments on the first NOI/NPRM will be due 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register; reply comments will be due 30 days thereafter.

Review Procedures for State-Funded Consortium Applications

In past years, large consortium applicants often noticed that the funding of their applications was being delayed, not because of any particular problems with their applications per se, but because of pending issues - typically Selective Reviews focusing on resource issues - of the individual applications of consortium members. USAC's apparent rationale was that if members were not prepared to use and pay for services on their own applications, the same could be said of their proposed consortium services.

This year, PIA is prepared to make a distinction between consortium services for which the members are financially responsible, and those for which other parties are responsible - most commonly for state network services paid for by the state.

When in doubt, PIA is asking consortium applicants the following question: "Is [the consortium] solely responsible for paying the non-discounted share, in other words, none of the Block 4 entities contribute to the non-discounted share?"

If a consortium applicant can answer "Yes" to this question, its application can be reviewed independently of its members' applications. For these types of consortia, this new procedure should significantly hasten application funding.

If the answer is "No," and the application appears to have stalled in PIA, we recommend that the consortium applicant reach out to its members to determine which ones, if any, are still embroiled in PIA reviews and what can be done to resolve outstanding issues.