Disclaimer: As a general practice, E-Rate Central does not support specific suppliers or product offerings to E-Rate applicants, clients or otherwise. But we have recently experienced an unprecedented action by the FCC to change the rules during a funding year on previously eligible hotspot and school bus Wi-Fi services. The FCC’s actions have left many applicants in the lurch, requiring them to either cancel services or pay unbudgeted expenses to maintain service for the remainder of the year. In this situation, we feel justified in bringing to your attention one new service offering that we expect will generate considerable interest — and hopefully even competitive offerings from others.
Last week, Mission Telecom, a non-profit wireless telecom provider for schools and libraries issued a press release offering E-Rate applicants, with pending — soon to be denied (see our newsletter of October 6th) — hotspot and/or bus Wi-Fi funding requests, ongoing service through the remainder of FY 2025 (i.e., through June 30, 2026) at a cost equal to the post-discount price of those wireless services. In other words, a school or library with a FY 2025 application for fifty hotspots at a cost of $30/mo./device, and a discount rate of 80%, would have requested $1,500/mo. in pre-discount services for which it would have paid $300/mo. post-discount. In the absence of E-Rate funding, Mission Telecom is offering to provide unlimited 4G/5G Wi-Fi service for the remainder of the year at the same “post-discount” price of $300/mo. For a 90% discount applicant, with the same service, Mission Telecom would charge only $150/mo. The goal is for the applicant to pay no more per month — net of the E-Rate discount — than it would have if the FY 2025 E‑Rate application had been approved.
This is such an unusually attractive offering that Mission Telecom’s press release has drawn supporting statements from the American Library Association (“ALA”), the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (“SHLB”) Coalition, and COSN – The Consortium for School Networking.
Several conditions apply to the Mission Telecom offering and should be carefully noted:
- The underlying wireless provider for Mission Telecom’s service is T-Mobile. This means that the applicant must be in a T-Mobile service area – and must have (or buy) compatible Wi-Fi devices (SIM cards, if necessary, will apparently be provided for free).
- The discount applies only through June 30, 2026. Service beyond this date will have to be negotiated. The Mission Telecom website sets an apparent upper bound on pricing starting at $20/mo. with increasing volume discounts up to 3,500 devices.
- Mission Telecom is a relatively small non-profit company that may have difficulty immediately responding to inquiries from the over 1,200 applicants who had applied for wireless services in FY 2025. Interested applicants can contact the company earlier rather than later by email or by scheduling a call.
- For applicants concerned about the E-Rate gift rules for receiving special discounted pricing, it should be noted that (at least for now) Mission Telecom is NOT an E-Rate supplier. Thus, there should be no conflict (unless a library seeks to use the service for its bookmobiles and also applies for E-Rate discounts).