On September 19, 2016, the FCC released a Public Notice seeking comments from stakeholders on two petitions “…to allow schools and school districts to leverage existing E-rate supported services to allow Internet traffic originating at students’ homes to be directed to and carried over E-rate supported networks without creating an obligation on the applicant to cost allocate out the portion of the traffic attributable to off-campus use.” The two petitions were filed by Microsoft Corporation and by the Boulder Valley School District. The initial comment deadline is now closed and stakeholders support the concept of the FCC finding ways to help close the “homework gap”, but are divided if the FCC should grant these two petitions.
Funds For Learning filed comments in support of the waiver petitions. Additional comments are listed below:
New York City Department of Education
State Education Technology Director’s Association
Nebraska Department of Education
State E-rate Coordinators Alliance
These organizations while fully supporting the objective to close the “homework gap”, are not supportive of these particular wavier petitions:
The Voice of Mid-Sized Companies
United States Telecom Association
Reply Comment Date: December 5, 2016
