Moving Forward with a Data-Driven E-rate Modernization Process

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau and Office of Strategic Planning and Policy released a staff report summarizing what we have learned to date as the result of an extraordinary effort to collect and analyze data, both about the current state of communications technology in America’s libraries and schools as well as the way the E-Rate program provides support.

We also published two maps providing a visualization of current fiber availability for schools and libraries across the country. A few insights from the report really stand out:

• The Commission’s E-rate Modernization Order has the potential to dramatically expand access to funding for Wi-Fi upgrades.
• Phasing down support for non-broadband services will, over the next five Funding Years, result in a total of over $3.5 billion which will be freed up and reallocated to higher priority broadband connections to and within schools and libraries.
• The report confirms that while there is work to be done in connecting more schools to fiber, the current state is somewhat better than expected.
• At the same time, many rural schools and the vast majority of libraries lack physical infrastructure necessary to meet the broadband goals adopted in the E-rate Modernization Order.
• One of the more striking takeaways from the report is how vividly it illustrates the variability in prices being paid for similar services by similarly situated schools and libraries seeking E-rate support.