Under federal law, telecommunications companies are required to provide affordable phone and Internet rates to schools in low-income areas, as well as subsidize the cost of equipment and services. The program is called E-Rate, but the time may have arrived for it to be renamed I-Rate.

 

Some telecom giants are simply not abiding by the requirements of E-Rate, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hasn’t helped matters by not enforcing the law, according to ProPublica.

 

One company, AT&T, hasn’t bothered to train its employees about the mandatory low rates. AT&T, as well as Verizon, have been caught charging school districts higher rates than what’s allowed under the E-Rate program. In fact, AT&T has charged some schools 300% more than others in the same region for the same services.

 

The FCC has exacerbated the problem by not going after companies for violating the low-price rule. E-Rate was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, but in the 16 years since then, the FCC has yet to file a single case against a telecommunications company violating the “lowest corresponding price” requirement.

 

The FCC also delegated the responsibility of administering the E-Rate program to a private company, and “has provided little if any guidance to companies on how to apply the best-price rule,” wrote Jeff Gerth of ProPublica.

 

The money for the E-Rate fund comes from regular Americans in the form of an extra charge on their phone bill labeled by many companies “Universal Service Fund.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

AT&T, Feds Neglect Low-Price Mandate Designed to Help Schools (by Jeff Gerth, ProPublica)