News of the Week

E-Rate for FY 2024:

Wave 16 for FY 2024 was released on Thursday, August 8th, for $80.5 million.  Total funding is now $1.96 billion.  Currently, USAC has funded 89.5% of the originally submitted applications, representing 64.9% of the dollars requested.

Although USAC and the FCC have not yet released details of the forms it will use to administer the Cybersecurity Pilot, it has already provided extensive information to OMB on the forms and their intended usage.  An initial OMB filing was made last January that provided preliminary descriptions of the fields to be included in the new Form 484 (see our newsletter of January 29th).  A slightly updated version of the Form 484 field descriptions became available last month.  The actual Form 484 (Part 1 and Part 2), as well as other Pilot forms* modeled after E-rate and ECF forms, are currently awaiting formal OMB approval.  All Pilot forms will be submitted in a separate section of EPC, much like the sections currently established for E-rate and ECF.

More important than the Pilot forms themselves is an understanding as to how they will be used.  An introduction to that plan is provided in a “Supporting Statement” recently filed with OMB that addresses what to us has been a major question, namely: Where in the Pilot process will USAC and the FCC narrow the number of interested applicants, initially expect to be numerous, down to a manageable number of schools and libraries sharing the $200 million Pilot cap?

The answer to this question is that the first cut — and perhaps only cut unless funding is constrained and rationed by discount rate — will occur after a review of the first part of the Form 484s. As indicated in the Supporting Statement:

Specifically, all schools, libraries, and consortia…interested in participating in the Cybersecurity Pilot Program will submit the first part of an application (Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program Application, FCC Form 484) that collects general information about how they will use the Pilot funds and provides an overview of their proposed Cybersecurity Pilot projects.  Eligible entities will then be selected to participate in the Cybersecurity Pilot Program from the set of applicants that file the first part of the Cybersecurity Pilot Program Application, FCC Form 484.  Applicants who are selected as Pilot participants will file the second part of the Cybersecurity Pilot Program Application, FCC Form 484.

We anticipate that only those applicants surviving the first Form 484 cut will have access to the second, and more detailed, part of the Form 484 in EPC.  Assuming a normal OMB form approval process. We envision an FCC announcement of the initial Form 484 window opening in September.

Upcoming Dates:

U.S. Sues TikTok over Children’s Privacy:

The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), together with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), filed a civil suit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance for alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).  As summarized in the DOJ press release, “COPPA prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13, unless they provide notice to and obtain consent from those children’s parents. It also requires website operators to delete personal information collected from children at their parents’ request.”

This month’s suit follows a 2019 government suit against TikTok’s predecessor that resulted in a court order requiring the company to undertake specific actions to comply with COPPA.  Since then, according to the DOJ’s suit, “TikTok knowingly permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts and to create, view, and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform.  The defendants collected and retained a wide variety of personal information from these children without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents.”  Reportedly, this occurred even with accounts that were created in “Kids Mode” (a special version of TikTok intended for children under 13).

For its part, the FTC is seeking penalties in excess of $50,000 per violation per day that, should TikTok be found liable, could total billions of dollars.  TikTok is already facing fines from the European Union and in Britian over its handing of children’s data.

Meanwhile, in Congress, the Senate has just passed a bill to expand the data protection provisions of COPPA to cover teenagers up to the age of seventeen.  Enactment would require approval by the House of Representatives, currently in recess until September.

How USF Impacts the States:

As a part of the FCC’s response to the recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the Universal Service Fund (“USF”) was unconstitutional (see our newsletter of July 29), the FCC released a state-by-state impact summary of funding each state has recently received from E-rate and the other three USF programs.  The summary notes that the recent 5th Circuit’s decision breaks with two earlier decisions by the 6th and 11th Circuit courts and that FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel has vowed to “pursue all available avenues for review.”