SHLB, SECA Urge FCC to Keep Allowing Internet Donations During Coronavirus

The FCC should extend to June 30 its gift rule waiver to the Rural Health Care and E-rate programs, said the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition and State E-rate Coordinators Alliance (SECA) in a Friday conference call with the Wireline Bureau, according to a Tuesday filing in docket 13-184. The groups first requested that Aug. 4 (see 2008050052). The “waiver has enabled schools, libraries, and health care providers to accept gifts that have facilitated the availability of additional broadband connectivity to meet the needs of their constituents,” SHLB and SECA said. Not extending it “would be disruptive to the anchor institutions that have benefited from these donations -- forcing them either to stop receiving the equipment or service or to divert funding away from other crucial educational needs ... in the midst of the crisis.” SHLB plans to support SECA’s request to allow E-rate applicants to get supplemental FY 2020 funding for unanticipated expenses buying more bandwidth to meet on-campus internet needs due to COVID-19, they said.