SHLB Coalition Leads Call on FCC to Delay EBS Proceeding

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition joined Mobile Beacon, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), the North American Catholic Educational Programming Foundation (NACEPF), Public Knowledge and Voqal in asking the Federal Communications Commission to request additional comment on and delay its proceeding to transform the Educational Broadband Service (EBS). The letter identified several topics on which the FCC must request additional comment due to insufficient information:

• The economic impact and social benefits of making EBS spectrum available to educational entities versus moving immediately to auction.
• The current contours of existing EBS spectrum licenses.
• The ways current EBS licensees achieve both educational benefits and broadband deployment today.
• The options for modernizing the educational use rules.

​The letter also noted that the FCC should not decide on the EBS rulemaking until the FCC and the Department of Justice resolve the pending merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. Because Sprint is the dominant operator in the EBS band, the merger outcome could affect critical issues in the rulemaking proceeding. "A rush to judgment in favor of auctions could deepen the digital divide, delay rural deployment, and permanently abandon the almost 60-year-old commitment to educational use of this spectrum," said John Windhausen Jr., executive director of the SHLB Coalition.