Bulletins

The Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) seeks comment on the attached proposed eligible services list (ESL) for the schools and libraries universal support mechanism (more commonly known as the E-rate program) for funding year 2017. We invite stakeholders to comment on any aspect of the proposed ESL, and particularly welcome comments based on applicants’ and other interested parties’ experience with the ESLs for recent funding years.

Pursuant to our procedure for resolving requests for review, requests for waiver, and petitions for reconsideration of decisions related to actions taken by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) that are consistent with precedent (collectively, Requests), the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) grants, dismisses, or denies the following Requests. The deadline for filing petitions for reconsideration or applications for review concerning the disposition of any of these Requests is 30 days from release of this Public Notice.

Pursuant to section 54.507(a) of the Commission's rules, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announces that the E-rate program funding cap for funding year 2016 is $3,939,000,000. This figure is based on changes the Commission made in the Second E-rate Modernization Order to ensure sufficient funding is available to meet E-rate program goals and connectivity targets. In that order, the Commission adjusted the E-rate cap to $3.9 billion and continued to require that the funding cap reflect any annual inflationary changes. The new cap represents a 1 percent inflation-adjusted increase in the $3.9 billion cap from funding year 2015. The Commission began indexing the funding cap to inflation in 2010 to ensure that E-rate program funding keeps pace with the changing broadband and telecommunications needs of schools and libraries.

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) hereby submits the federal Universal Service Support Mechanisms fund size and administrative cost projections for the third quarter of calendar year 2016 (3Q2016), in accordance with Section 54.709 of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC or Commission) rules.

Pursuant to our procedure for resolving requests for review, requests for waiver, and petitions for reconsideration of decisions related to actions taken by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) that are consistent with precedent (collectively, Requests), the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) grants, dismisses, or denies the following Requests. The deadline for filing petitions for reconsideration or applications for review concerning the disposition of any of these Requests is 30 days from release of this Public Notice.

By the Chief, Telecommunications Access Policy Division, Wireline Competition Bureau: Consistent with precedent and in accordance with Commission guidance in the E-rate Modernization Order, we deny the requests for waiver listed in the Appendix, all of which seek waiver of the E-rate program rules governing invoicing deadlines. As described in greater detail below, compliance with the invoicing rules is straightforward for applicants and service providers and important for the efficient administration of the E-rate program. The rules allow billed entities and service providers to seek and automatically receive a one-time extension of the invoicing deadlines, provided that the extension request is made in advance of the initial invoicing deadline. None of the petitioners timely sought such an extension, and none present evidence that would justify waiving the requirement that invoice extension requests be filed before the invoicing deadline.

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2016 – The Federal Communications Commission today modernized and reformed its Lifeline program to help low income consumers afford access to the 21st Century's vital communications network: the Internet.

FCC Releases Streamlined Resolution of Requests Related to Actions by USAC (DA 16-334)

Federal raids last week of yeshivas in Brooklyn and in Rockland and Orange Counties in New York have set Hasidic communities on edge, as concern spreads about a possible government crackdown on Orthodox exploitation of the federal E-Rate technology subsidy program.

The FBI raided charedi Orthodox yeshivas and technology vendors that serve them in Brooklyn and in New York's Rockland County, but declined to state publicly the details of the investigations.