FCC Releases Eligible Services List for FY 2006 (Year 9)
Message posted December 7, 2005
The FCC has approved the Eligible Services List (ESL) for FY 2006 and there are some changes that you should be aware of. A summary and discussion of each item is below; please pay particular attention to the Blackberry item. A copy of the new Eligible Services List is available on the SLD's Web site at http://www.sl.universalservice.org/reference/eligible.asp.
Blackberry Internet/e-mail Service - Cell service is eligible, but Internet access and e-mail service used on Blackberry-type devices is almost never eligible (read below).
Discussion: In FY 2005, the SLD was faced with requests for wireless Internet access (most typically, Blackberry type services) and had to decide whether they were eligible. Since the FCC educational purpose definition is limited to “telecommunications services” used offsite, the SLD concluded that wireless Internet access was not covered and has denied requests for such services. For FY 2006, the FCC included this language in the ESL: “A wireless Internet Access service designed for portable devices may be funded, provided that the applicant has in place an auditable system to allocate between eligible and ineligible uses.” We have asked for clarification and it appears that unless the applicant can prove that the Internet access and e-mail on the Blackberry-type phones will only be used on school property, it is ineligible.
* I have spoke with representatives from Nextel and Verizon Wireless and they have suggested the following for customers that use Blackberry or Treo Internet/e-mail. Some Nextel and Verizon Wireless plans include cellular service and Internet/e-mail as one bundled price (currently, Nextel is not discounting those lines because they deem them to be ineligible.) Other Nextel and Verizon Wireless plans have the cellular price plan and then you can add the Blackberry or Treo Internet/e-mail plan. In that case, they have a way to just discount the cellular service and not the Internet/e-mail service and this is what they recommend for their school and library customers. So unless you have a way to prove that Internet/e-mail features are not used off of school property, then you should contact your wireless provider and request a change to your pricing plan that splits out the cellular and Internet/e-mail features into two separate pricing plans. I have just spoken with Nextel and Verizon Wireless, but I'm assuming that other wireless providers that offer Internet/e-mail services via a cell phone would offer the same type of individual pricing plans.
Telecom/Internet Bundle - No changes from previous years' eligibility list.
Discussion: The SLD had proposed that applicants should be required to break out the telecommunications services and Internet access on the 470 and 471 and no longer permit such bundles of service that are common in the school and library community. The State E-rate Coordinators submitted blistering comments opposing this proposal, and the FCC declined to adopt the proposed change without elaboration.
Terminal Servers - Eligible unless only used to store and provide ineligible software applications.
Discussion: The final ESL states that terminal servers are ineligible only if used “to store and provide ineligible software applications….”
Virtual Private Network Components - Now eligible.
Discussion: Virtual private network (VPN) components were ineligible in the FY 2005 ESL. SLD proposed that, in light of the fact that “FCC has been transitioning toward increasing eligibility of security features” in recent years, VPN components should be deemed eligible under the concept of “basic and reasonable security protections.” The FCC adopted the SLD's language and VPN components are now eligible.
Late Payment Fees - Not eligible.
Discussion: The new ESL contains a new entry specifically indicating that Late Payment Charges/Fees are not eligible for discount (they never have been but previously it wasn't written in the ESL).
Julie Tritt Schell
jtschell@comcast.net
(717) 730.7133 (voice)
(717) 730.9060 (fax)
| 
Back to 2005 Archives Main