Eight libraries, including those in Hartford, Memphis, New York and...
Eight libraries, including those in Hartford, Memphis, New York and Seattle, protested FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s proposed E-rate changes, which FCC officials said would fund libraries based on their square footage, in filings posted in docket 13-184 Wednesday and Thursday.…
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CenturyLink protested another element of the plan to eliminate E-rate funding for voice services, arguing funding of the services is required by the Telecom Act. Under Wheeler’s draft, libraries would receive $1-per-square foot, said Reed Hundt, who represents the Urban Libraries Council, though FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins said during a media call Tuesday (WID July 2 p7) the figure is still being negotiated. Seattle public libraries total 633,000 square feet, and the cost of delivering Wi-Fi over five years is $4 to $5 per square foot, said Seattle Public Library Director-Information Technology Jim Loter in a letter (http://bit.ly/1vBUh09). Using square footage “is unfair to urban libraries, and to our patrons who are disproportionately low-income, unemployed or underemployed. ... Wi-Fi is essential to our urban patrons,” the filing said. “If square footage is used as the basis to allocate E-rate funding for Wi-Fi, we fear urban libraries will not be adequately funded,” the New York Public Library said in a letter (http://bit.ly/1zaJdMc). While supportive of E-rate modernization, “it would be a mistake to discontinue support for voice services -- which actually are required by statute,” CenturyLink officials told aides to commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly on June 30, said an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1xmZEmG). Any reduction in voice support should be phased in over time and must apply equally to all types of voice services, including all technologies and bundled services, the telco said. Universal service support extends to the services of “telecommunications carriers” that “are supported by Federal universal service support mechanisms, the company said. “Standalone voice is among them, and in the USF/[Intercarrier Compensation] ICC Transformation Order, the Commission explained that voice, not broadband, is the USF-supported service, and it expressly required eligible telecommunications carriers to offer standalone voice service.” Wheeler’s plan calls for funding Wi-Fi connections within schools partly through eliminating funding for some services including voice, FCC officials said during the media call on the plan.