Big Cable Says E-Rate Should Not Subsidize Lighting Dark Fiber in Schools and Libraries

In comments filed at the Federal Communications Commission on reforming the FCC's E-rate program, the lobbying organization for large cable operators said that the FCC should not include dark fiber among the services covered by the E-rate program.

Allowing schools to lease dark fiber under the E-rate program would run counter to the principle, established in other parts of the program, that schools may not request funding for more services than are necessary for educational purposes. The proposal to add dark fiber, NCTA guesses, is premised on the assumption that leasing dark fiber would be less expensive than buying finished services, but that is not necessarily the case. Unlike most of the services that are supported under the current E-rate program, dark fiber does not actually provide value to students unless the school has the resources and expertise necessary to install and maintain the equipment necessary to light the fiber. For many schools systems, it may not be feasible to provide this level of support. As a result, as compared to buying finished services, leasing dark fiber is more likely to result in wasted investment. In addition, NCTA says, to the extent the FCC decides to support services used to access the Internet from "off campus" locations, it should do so in a competitively and technologically neutral manner.