E-RATE AND THE NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN

Universal Service Fund Webinar
Thursday, January 20, 2011, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. EST
Featuring Sabrina Scott, Utah State E-rate Coordinator at Utah Education Network

The filing deadline for the FY2011 application for the FCC’s E-rate program has recently been established; applicants can submit applications between Tuesday, January 11, 2011, and Thursday, March 24, 2011.  E-rate, or the Schools and Libraries Universal Support Mechanism, provides discounts to assist most schools and libraries in the United States to obtain affordable telecommunications and Internet access. Public media stations are uniquely positioned to receive funding through this program.

The National Broadband Plan has recently created some changes for this program. In order to understand these proposed changes, the program and how to strategically position your station and community to benefit from E-rate, the APTS Grant Center hosted a Universal Service Fund webinar on Thursday, January 20, 2011.

Sabrina Scott, the Utah State E-rate Coordinator at Utah Education Network, discussed the programs and reforms to help stations better understand this program and how it may apply to their mission.

Laura Hunter, Director of Instructional Services at Utah Education Network, provided these reasons about why public broadcasting stations should understand Universal Service Fund:

• Universal Service Fund is a primary funding source that has built our national network of internet connections, particularly to schools and libraries. This is a tax that all telecommunications customers pay.
• New rules from the FCC and new visions set forth in the National Broadband Plan are likely going to expand that pool of funding to other community entities, such as senior centers, community colleges and preschools.
• These are all public entities that have a long-standing and strong relationship with public broadcasters. Many station licenses are held by these entities.
• The more stations can make themselves available as public media partners in building and supporting this public network, the brighter the future is for public media stations.
• Although traditional broadcast is ineligible, internet services are not. Increasingly, public media stations will be receiving content and distributing content through the internet network.
• The future of public broadcasting stations is as public media services with interactive media, media on demand and a variety of receiver devices. Robust public internet is integral to all of that.

Because there is money for these projects and will likely to be more in the future, stations are wise to position themselves as a public media "service," so as to be part of what the National Broadband Plan has proposed.

Download the webinar.

Download the PowerPoint slides.