Some Educators Urge FCC to Go Beyond Wi-Fi Hotspots
LTE-enabled devices may be a more cost-effective solution for connecting students at-home.
Jericho Casper
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2024 – Public school leaders and other education advocates give the Federal Communications Commission's Wi-Fi hotspots plan high marks, but they think the agency can still do better.
A coalition advocating for student connectivity, along with the Los Angeles Unified School District, has urged the FCC to expand its funding options for off-campus student internet access beyond Wi-Fi hotspots.
Both parties petitioned the FCC to reconsider provisions of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s E-Rate Hotspot Order. Adopted in July, the ruling expanded E-Rate support to include off-premises use of Wi-Fi hotspots for school and library patrons, but limited funding to hotspot devices that are bundled with commercial wireless service. Devices without such service or non-hotspot Wi-Fi-enabled devices were excluded from support.
The coalition, which includes the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Open Technology Institute, and Common Sense Media, argued that the FCC erred in excluding certain technologies from funding through the Hotspot Order
These exclusions force schools to purchase additional equipment, increasing program costs and making it harder for students to access the internet using devices they already have, such as LTE-enabled Chromebooks, the coalition wrote in its’ petition.
LAUSD, serving over 500,000 students, echoed this in its petition Friday, urging the FCC to allow cellular broadband service to be eligible for E-Rate funding without requiring a hotspot device.
The district headed by Superintendent Alberto Carvalho contended that providing students with LTE-enabled laptops or Chromebooks that connect directly to the internet via cellular broadband is a streamlined solution to home connectivity challenges, avoiding the extra costs and complications of managing hotspots.
In addition, SHLB and OTI were among the commenters that provided evidence in the record that commercial mobile hotspot service can be inadequate to support remote learning, particularly indoors, in most rural areas and in many low-income urban neighborhoods where signals are not strong enough.
They also warned that the current rules may violate the competitive neutrality requirement of the E-Rate program established by the Communications Act, by favoring certain types of technology over others.
Despite citing budget constraints, the FCC did not address the coalition's economic analysis, which showed that purchasing commercial mobile wireless service and hotspots would be significantly more expensive over time compared to other options.
“The Commission erroneously dismissed this analysis,” the coalition said, “based on the lack of detailed cost information for creating individual component caps.”
