U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Friday voted along party lines to begin to transition E-Rate, the largest U.S. educational technology subsidy program, to focus on high-speed Internet and increasingly on Wi-Fi in the next few years. In a 3-2 vote, the FCC approved Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposal to phase out E-Rate spending on older technologies such as pagers, shift focus to high-speed Internet and commit $2 billion in the next two years to Wi-Fi, without raising the program’s budget. To quell a key concern, the final rules ensure that E-Rate’s increased focus on Wi-Fi comes secondary to schools’ and libraries’ requests to fund more basic Internet connectivity. E-Rate, created in 1996 and funded by fees Americans pay on their monthly phone bills, has helped connect most U.S. classrooms and public libraries to the Internet, but rules have limited how much money could fund broadband and Wi-Fi.
U.S. FCC votes to refocus Internet subsidy for schools
12
Jul
2014
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