FCC Adopts Emergency Broadband Benefit Order

The FCC issued its Emergency Broadband Benefit (“EBB”) Order (FCC 21-29) last Friday with the plan to have the program up and running in less than 60 days. The EBB program (a $3.2 billion component of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021) will provide discounts * on internet service of up to $50/month ($75/month in Tribal areas) for low-income households.**  

Although EBB is not an E-rate program, the FCC strongly encourages schools and libraries to play a major role in the promotion of EBB on behalf of their low-income students and patrons.  There are several possible levels of participation.

• At the simplest level, schools and libraries can reach out to low-income families, particularly those with students requiring internet access for remote learning, to alert them to the availability of EBB internet discounts. Eligible families already subscribing to internet services need to make sure that their internet provider will be participating in EBB. Families without internet should be encouraged to subscribe to discounted internet services.
• Schools, in particular, can work with local internet providers to: (a) encourage the providers’ election to participate in the EBB program; (b) identify needy students; and (c) help EBB providers in validating family eligibility. Validation will be important to participating providers, who have access to a Lifeline National Verifier database, but who can also rely on schools to verify NSLP (or CEP) eligibility.

Most importantly, schools (or libraries) that are already paying for home internet access for eligible student (or staff) families, or that are prepared to do so, can lower the cost of those services and/or increase bandwidth by taking advantage of the EBB discounts. The key provision of the EBB Order dealing with “bulk” billing arrangements is addressed in Para. 45. Note that an EBB provider in these cases is required to obtain (and retain) documentation from the families, either directly or more likely through the bulk purchaser (school or library), consenting to the use of those families’ EBB discounts in this manner.

 

* Discounts will be available for six months following the “emergency period,” as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, or until the EBB funding is depleted.

** Discounts up to $100 per family are also available on connecting devices subject to certain conditions that may require further clarification.