Year 4 E-rate Demand Exceeds $5.7 Billion
Internal Connections In Doubt for Most Applicants
Message Posted March 12, 2001
The SLD has just reported to the FCC that the total funding requested for Year 4 of the E-rate program is estimated to be $5.787 billion.
A breakdown of the funding requests shows that demand for priority one services (telecommunications and Internet access services) is $1.824 billion (81% of the $2.25 billion funding cap) -- leaving $426 million for all priority two services (internal connections). The SLD estimates that demand for internal connections at the 90% discount level alone is $1.708 billion -- twice as much as last year, and $1.282 billion short of funding.
What does this mean? The SLD has cautioned that the demand figure may decrease slightly as there are several factors that will disqualify some applications, including: late filed Form 471 attachments and certifications, elimination of duplicate requests, and reductions made as a result of program integrity review. But for most applicants, these figures show no chance of receiving internal connections funding for Year 4 unless your discount is 90%. And even then, it appears that not all 90% applicants will be funded for internal connections (although the SLD has not stated which 90% applicants will be funded). The good news is that there appears to be plenty of funding for all telecommunications and Internet access requests.
The SLD projections are based on funding requests included in 37,188 applications filed during the Year Four window application period (31,565 electronic and 5623 paper applications). A copy of the SLD's report to the FCC can be found on the SLD Web site at http://www.sl.universalservice.org/data/pdf/DemEst02r.pdf and shows a very interesting chart listing each discount band and how much they requested for each bucket of service.
-- Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
Executive Policy Specialist
Pennsylvania Department of Education
333 Market Street, 10th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17126
(717) 705-4486
(717) 787-7222 - fax
jtritt@state.pa.us
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