Panelists to FCC: Raise e-Rate funding cap

The e-Rate can play a significant role in the national broadband plan being developed by the Federal Communications Commission, panelists said during an August 20 hearing -- but for this to happen, the Commission must raise the program's funding cap. "When the e-Rate began, our connectivity consisted of a few dial-up connections in our school libraries," said Sheryl Abshire, chief technology officer for the Calcasieu Parish Public Schools. "Today, this has all changed. We now have over 20,000 computers connected to our network, and--at any given moment--over 12,000 of them are accessing the network. Each day, our students, teachers, and administrators make more than 5 million web page or network object requests, send or receive over 35,000 eMail messages, and transmit 18.5 gigabytes of data." Yet, as successful as the program has been in connecting schools and libraries to the Internet, demand for the e-Rate still far exceeds what is available for disbursement, Abshire testified.