Early Comments Support Using E-Rate for Wi-Fi Hot Spots, Wireless Access Points

Most early comments supported a proposal in a November FCC NPRM letting schools and libraries apply for funding from the E-rate program for Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet access services that can be used off-premises. The agency approved the NPRM 3-2, with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting (see 2311090028). Comments were due Monday in docket 21-31.

“This proposal is a critical recognition of the highly mobile and highly connected lives Americans lead, and the expectation of connectivity we place on our students, adult learners, and every resident,” said the EveryLibrary Institute. Library patrons “repeatedly and enthusiastically” say hot spots borrowed from their local public library allow them “to complete schoolwork, take courses … and even teach K-12 classes or run study groups,” the institute said.

Likewise, the Association of California School Administrators and the California School Boards Association supported the change. “Modernizing E-rate to include Wi-Fi hotspots and related service will serve a vitally important educational purpose recognized by California’s school districts and state leaders,” the groups said. More than 1.6 million California children live in homes without high-speed internet access and nearly 750,000 live in homes lacking a computer, a recent study found, they said.

In Mississippi, while COVID-19-related broadband funding from the legislature helped, and more broadband funding is coming through the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, only a third of the state’s population has access to affordable broadband, said the Mississippi Center for Justice. Expanding E-rate funding will help students that other programs overlooked, the center said.

“Closing the Homework Gap in California will require investments through proven, cost-effective, subsidy programs like E-rate, but also new infrastructure investments -- like those poised to be made through the bipartisan BEAD program -- that will enable Wi-Fi hotspots and services to work effectively in every corner of California,” said the California Association of School Business Officials. Reaching students at unserved and underserved locations “is essential and will require a multifaceted strategy that includes Wi-Fi hotspots and expanded infrastructure.”

Librarian Adina Dunn said using the emergency connectivity fund helps pay for hot spots that patrons may check out of the library. “Now that our funding has ended, we can support less than a third of the devices with our existing budget,” Dunn said. Patrons tell Dunn daily they are “desperate to keep the hotspot they were using, and I have to explain we can’t pay for it anymore.” E-rate funding will allow the library to offer the same number of hot spots it did when it used ECF, she said. Librarian Ryan Sheffield said the hot spots remain in high demand at the library where he works: “Our patrons use them for homework, telehealth, continuing education, job upskilling, and more,” Sheffield said.

However, RF safety advocates opposed the proposal. “Providing Wi-Fi hotspots is simply not the solution for bridging the ‘homework gap because it is only a stop gap measure -- a more permanent, wired, solution for school kids to have broadband access at home should be deployed,” said a filing led by Wired Broadband advocates.