The Schools and Libraries Division announced that on December 16 it will release 78 E-rate funding commitment letters, totaling $82 million, for the 2003 funding year. The wave will include commitments for internal connections for applicants down to the 85 percent discount threshold.
Earlier, the Schools and Libraries Committee of the Universal Service Administrative Company's Board of Directors authorized the SLD to begin rejecting internal connections requests from applicants with discount rates between 70 and 79 percent. Requests for internal connections from applicants eligible for a discount rate between 80 and 84 percent remain under review.
The latest wave, Number 18, will bring the total committed for the 2003 funding year to just over $1.6 billion. The SLD is about $35 million ahead of the pace it had achieved by this date for the 2002 funding year.
