4/5 FCC Comments Urging Flexible E-Rate Expansion Rules Empowering Local Choice

New America's Open Technology Institute wrote and filed comments alongside the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, Next Century Cities, Public Knowledge, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Access Humboldt, Digital Tribal Village and X-Lab (collectively, “Public Interest Organizations” or “PIOs”) urging the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) to adopt flexible rules for its "Emergency Connectivity Fund" that will expand the E-Rate program to address the homework gap that has impacted remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the PIOs called for the Commission to adopt technology-neutral rules that empower local schools, school districts, and libraries to provision whatever technologies and network services that best fit the needs of their own communities—specifically including self-provisioned networks. There are numerous examples nationwide in a diverse set of areas of self-provisioned networks being employed by schools, school districts, and libraries to bridge the homework gap and connect students who need broadband access to facilitate remote learning both in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and before the onset of the pandemic. Several of these examples were profiled in OTI's E-Rate Report in November 2020. These comments follow a Public Notice issued by the Commission seeking comment on the American Rescue Plan Act’s direction of $7.17 billion to support the Emergency Connectivity Fund to expand E-Rate service and extend broadband service to millions of students and library patrons who lack the access at home necessary for remote learning.

These comments follow comments and reply comments written and filed by OTI and a similar collection of public interest organizations in February urging the expansion of E-Rate—specifically empowering self-provisioned networks and locally-driven solutions to the homework gap—and a series of petitions, including one filed by a coalition including OTI in January. OTI called for a similar expansion of E-Rate through an emergency request in April 2020.

A summary of the PIOs comments is available below:

The rules of the Emergency Connectivity Fund will be crucial as they will determine whether schools and libraries are permitted to innovate and develop locally-driven solutions to match their specific needs or if they will be required to shoehorn certain mandated technologies, equipment, services, and networks to meet local challenges. PIOs respectfully submit the following recommendations for the Commission’s rules.

First, the PIOs urge the Commission to clarify that extending school networks directly to students at home and other self-provisioned connections are among the “different technological solutions” that Congress has authorized for reimbursement from the Emergency Connectivity Fund provided that the funds are used exclusively to connect students and teachers for remote learning and other core educational purposes related to closing the homework gap. Lawmakers stated in the House Committee Report accompanying the bill: “Additional emergency funding will ensure that students and low-income Americans have access to reliable high-speed internet in locations other than schools and libraries through different technological solutions, including residential broadband service provided in different forms, or through Wi-Fi hotspots, either incorporated into mobile phone or provided on a standalone basis, among other things.”

Second, the Commission should promulgate rules that recognize the widely-varying circumstances in communities across the nation and therefore empower schools and libraries to use the financial support of the Emergency Connectivity Fund to fund whatever mix of technologies, equipment, and services that local officials determine best fit local circumstances and needs. Cable services are not available in many areas and cellular signals are not strong enough to support remote learning in homes, particularly by multiple students, in many other communities or even in outlying areas of many urban and suburban districts. The E-Rate program has never chosen technological winners and losers and should remain neutral on which solutions schools opt to deploy.

Third, the Commission should allow for schools and libraries to adopt self-provisioned networks to directly connect students without adequate internet access directly to the school’s network. While the Commission would be justified in putting a per student cap on the amount of funding reimbursed for “self-provisioned” connections—or for any other connections for that matter—there appears to be no rational basis for excluding a proven means of providing students with internet access that is often more robust and more cost-effective than purchasing massmarket ISP subscriptions which, in some portions of many districts, may be unavailable, unworkable (e.g., because cellular signals or capacity is inadequate to stream live class sessions indoors), or more expensive and financially unsustainable. Put simply, school districts and libraries are going to need every possible resource and tool to address the temporary remote learning crisis, the root cause was an inequitable homework gap that will persist long after herd immunity and the full reopening of all the nation’s schools and libraries.

Self-provisioned networks are no less cost-effective than those of incumbent providers. PIOs present a variety of case studies demonstrating how self-provisioned networks have offered service to communities during the pandemic for the specific purpose of remote learning. These examples demonstrate several instances where districts clearly determined self-provisioned networks to be the most cost-effective as well as efficient method through which to provide service—made clear due to the fact that each case by definition has been unable to rely on E-Rate support for their deployment due to the aforementioned restrictive interpretation of E-Rate rules of the previous Commission’s leadership.

Claims that self-provisioned and more permanent solutions to the homework gap are too costly are misplaced. The Commission has a straightforward and perhaps even inevitable remedy at hand: the rules can cap the reimbursement on a per-student basis to an amount deemed reasonable for conventional ISP services during the emergency period. Another rationale for technological-neutrality and deference to the judgment of local schools is that districts often have other sources of funding or subsidies that they could combine with a capped reimbursement to provide a superior and sustainable solution to the homework gap.

Finally, the Commission should not impose any restrictions on locations where schools and libraries can deploy service. Many students, teachers, and library patrons could be unhoused, lack a consistent address, or benefit from engaging in remote learning from an alternative location. School districts and libraries know their communities best and should be given the discretion to address local connectivity challenges through locally-driven solutions.