Monday, October 23 was the reply comment deadline for the Federal Communications Commission’s Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking input from E-rate program stakeholders on a wide range of regulatory and procedural changes aimed at making the E-rate application process easier and more efficient.
While not every reply comment addressed every potential change, several changes were widely supported among the reply commenters, including:
- Allowing multi-year maintenance agreements to be funded in full in a single E-rate Funding Year
- Eliminating the “subcategory” designations of Internal Connections, Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections, and Managed Internal Broadband Services under Category Two
- Extending the competitive bidding exemptions granted to Tribal libraries to all E-rate applicants
- Eliminating the FCC Form 486
- Allowing more flexibility for requesting extensions of BEAR and SPI invoice deadlines
- Creating a process that enables applicants to receive funding for all services received during a Funding Year when transitioning from one service provider to another
Reply comments may be viewed at the following links:
