The FCC should create an “Upgrade Fund” to...

The FCC should create an “Upgrade Fund” to facilitate widespread fiber investment in schools and libraries, the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute told a Wireline Bureau official March 7, according to an ex parte letter posted Thursday (http://bit.ly/1gfooCc). Robust fiber investments will ultimately lead to a “better and more efficient E-rate program,” as fiber connectivity will “soon be a necessity in the world of digitally-driven learning.” A fiber infrastructure will allow the technology “to scale along with school and library needs,” New America said. Data collection processes within the E-rate program can be enhanced to support integration with other data sets such as those maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics, the filing said. The group also urged the FCC to make the data available to researchers and the public more broadly.