benton's blog

What's in the E-rate Order?
Affordable High-Speed Broadband To and Within Schools and Libraries

On July 23, the Federal Communications Commission released its report and order on “Modernizing the E-rate Program for Schools and Libraries,” an effort to reorient the E-rate program to focus on high-speed broadband for U.S. schools and libraries.

The FCC adopted three goals for the E-rate program:

This week’s round-up covers the latest news on municipal broadband. In the spirit of disclosure, in 2012, the Benton Foundation and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) released “Broadband at the Speed of Light: How Three Communities Built Next-Generation Networks”, a report that highlights municipal network success stories.

(Thank you to our friends at Public Knowledge for letting us report this)

You may well have read about the Federal Communications Commission’s vote last August to cap rates for interstate phone calls placed by prison inmates. Understandably, most of the coverage of this controversy has focused upon what the FCC did, rather than the legal underpinnings of its actions. This post will address some of those legal questions.

TESTIMONY OF HON. MICHAEL J. COPPS
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE FIELD HEARING
“PRESERVING AN OPEN INTERNET: RULES TO PROMOTE COMPETITION
AND PROTECT MAIN STREET CONSUMERS”
BURLINGTON, VT
JULY 1, 2014