[Don Means] Hello everyone. Welcome to the session 40 in the series, what's a
library if the building is closed? Now as Libraries in Recovery we started
this exactly one year ago today. As more or less as libraries in reaction you know
we didn't even have a name for it because we were all just trying to figure out what was going on
how serious this pandemic was uh how how lethal, how contagious this virus was and it just froze
the just the entire planet was just suddenly uh stunned into kind of a a freeze and then
to a lockdown in in response. We segued into calling these Libraries in Response, different
strategies for dealing with it okay we're closed but are we totally closed we we're our
services are still online and actually demand is rising for those uh and then we began to
develop various kinds of plans and strategies curbside etc and then uh essentially the third
phase of this year of uh doing these sessions is Libraries and Recovery which we've been calling
it since the fall when there was a dip in the uh in the overall caseload, we started to feel
like we were coming out of it prematurely as it uh turns out to have been uh but here we are
and uh we've got a really good program today. So we are the Gigabit Libraries Network.
My name
is Don Means uh for those of you who haven't been here before welcome to our first time participants
and visitors the sessions are hosted and recorded by uh the International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions, IFLA, out of the Netherlands and our partner Stephen Wyber the head
of public policy for IFLA is at the controls there and he's handling the recording and uh the hosting
thank you again Stephen.
Uh our session sponsor is the Internet Society the DC Chapter of the
Internet Society and uh our series sponsors adapter is an equipment maker that has supported
library projects wide area wireless projects. Part 40. We've done 39 of these since
March 26 2020 and um they are all recorded and they're being transcribed for
closed caption and translated into 10 or more languages. That's a process that's
ongoing and this session will also be up soon. We have three outstanding speakers
today we'll we'll get to that here in a second when I finish the wrap but we
have to return to the COVID report since our first session we that's been the context
as I just described for the for these sessions how our libraries are dealing with this how we're all
dealing with this here's the latest uh chart on on cases and fatalities and hospitalizations, tracks the history through the last year, how
we've done and how we've done well and poorly and it looked like we were doing great about a
month ago the after hitting nearly three we did hit 300,000 cases at the peak and then dropping
off but now it looks like we've kind of hit a is it a is it a plateau on the way down or are we
going to curve back up like we did in the fall? If the spring break melee is any indication we
may be headed back up.
Deaths are declining but cases pretty much flattened at around 70,000
for the last month or so, we just don't know this thing is not over. We've got a lot of good
news in terms of vaccines, excellent news. Just extraordinary really when you think about what's
been accomplished in medical technology to develop a virus vaccine in a year I mean develop it and
deploy it in the year it's just you know we still don't have a vaccine for AIDS and a number of
viruses but we also have these variants which is what you get variations what viruses do is
they mutate and they find new strategies for defeating defenses uh well we don't know exactly
but maybe it's not that bad at least the early early descriptions or the vaccines are somewhat
effective may be effective but maybe we're all in for an additional vaccine to to deal with
this ongoing maybe it's going to be like a flu vaccine, we just don't know but we're still
practicing distance and masks even if we have uh you know uh if we've had a vaccination the
behavior is not that changed that much though. If you have been vaccinated it seems like the
CDC is allowing you to get together with other people who are vaccinated, so that's a big change
and a happy one but the past year is just been a incredible cascade of crises, just one thing
after another and whether or not that is true been triggered by the pandemic we know there's
massive psychological effects of this thing but I don't know is it the weather doesn't seem
to be dependent on our psychological profile uh and we've had just unbelievable uh weather,
extreme weather events the fires, the floods, the ice uh and so on then we had the Floyd
killing in the middle of the year this is incredible upset and you know something a lot of
these things or do we have to think about climate change we have to think about social justice and
then we have a constitutional crisis of historic proportions in a challenged election and a riot at
the capitol.
It's you know it's just mind-boggling looking back. More extreme weather, we had the
entire middle of the country in deep freeze for weeks and then gun violence again you know
another massacre. So we are we are in a state of high anxiety if I could put it that way. I'm not
trying to be alarmist I'm just reviewing the years gone by but we don't really have time to look
back normally we would it's a one year it's an anniversary but it's not really an anniversary
to celebrate, I mean it's a pandemic but it is a milestone and we are happy we've done these
these series and and the recordings will track kind of what was happening all along the
way and we're archiving that they're all available on our website giglibraries.net under
the Pandemic Response.
So no time really to look back and reflect much because things are in the
works the American Rescue Act Plan is now law and it has major implications for how
it's going to impact libraries and schools other anchor institutions and a whole range
of things it's a huge a huge amount of money and there's yet more legislation pending like the
Build America's Library Act that's a big one too so uh the FCC started their rulemaking process
and they have uh supported off-campus use, which is great this is what we've been
working on for years is advocating that. Partnering with local governments is a is a is
a criteria it looks like for for scoring well on these funds which is also an excellent idea uh
and then 100 percent reimbursement for these costs will uh it's good and also maybe it's
going to create some complications uh this is a an example of off off campus. This
is a a wireless hub uh model of a of a library extending access to new uh remote access
stations you might call them as one model for extension and then there's also
the prospect of anchor institutions schools libraries others clinics connecting to each other
in a kind of a community scale wireless intranet as a backup as a secondary network as these
facilities are in effect second responders. This is a goal that we have is everybody should
have a sign like this if they're like a short walk from from a library outlet and these extensions
that the connectivity can can anchor some kind of a facility it can be very small uh placed
it's actually a library point of presence and uh we just think that's really an opportunity.
Here is an example this is an actual example in in Tennessee of a of a a new
station it's solar powered, it's got electricity, got a place to sit uh was a
little library there a little free library there and so that to us is kind of the happiest
model of a outlet we would seek to emulate but we really need to get to our
program today because we have three presenters that are all extremely
well-versed in e-rate and the various universal service fund programs and we're going
to lead off with Bob who's been a guest before and we have John Harrington and Steve Augustino, both old friends and well known to the world of
e-rates so with that I'm going to stop the share and turn it over to Bob.
Thank you Bob. Let
me just ask one more time for our participants if you would rename and include your affiliation
it will help help us identify each other in the chat and also in the chat please start
thinking about questions even submit questions Stephen and I will be monitoring the
chat and we'll try to get this thing uh flowing to meet the concerns that you all may
have in the hour or maybe we'll just roll over a little more than an hour but with that I'd like
to welcome Bob Bocher back and Bob take it away.
[Bob Bocher] Yes Don, I'm just trying to,
I've got a number of monitors here I'm trying to get my screen shared.
[Don Means] You're shared. [unknown voice] I can see.
[Bob Bocher] Can you see it? I can't see it.
[Don Means] Yeah. Eligibility site services equipment.
[Bob Bocher] Oh, okay. Let's uh okay we'll get things started
here so everyone can see that okay? [Don Means] We're good.
[Bob Bocher] Okay very good, thank you. Well I appreciate Don the offer this morning
to talk about the Emergency Connectivity Fund uh I should know from a background perspective
that once the pandemic broke out which as Don noted has been over a year ago now, there were
many efforts in the last session of congress so April, May, June of 2020 to get bills passed that
would allow e-rate funds to be used off campus and unfortunately none of them ever got passed but now
with the American Rescue Plan Act we finally have that money in place and we have the ability really
to use that e-rate for off-campus purposes and what I want to do as part of the introduction this
morning is just take a few minutes and review the specific language that is in the American Rescue
Plan Act that deals with this remote connectivity. First of all, from an eligibility point of view
in relationship to site services and equipment, libraries and schools can connect off-campus sites
and I emphasize off-campus sites because as we're all familiar with the general e-rate program per
se it only allows discounts to go to schools and libraries at their physical locations and as
I said just a second ago many organizations besides the American Library Association have
been pressing the FCC on this especially since the pandemic broke out to allow e-rate funds to
be used off campus.
Now from a library perspective that can be a variety of different places, I know
we've had some discussions Don and these Friday sessions on kiosks, library kiosks in community
centers, shopping malls, neighborhoods for example and there's been no questions on kiosk eligibility
that's probably not an issue anymore because it's simply another off-campus site household
households may be of interest not only obviously the libraries but the schools as well
to deal with those students who are at home now uh dealing with the pandemic in relationship to
their learning ability now that schools are still closed in many instances, many instances although
they're in the process of opening up. Services, services are the same for the most part as in the
current e-rate program advanced telecommunications are eligible and information services and from an
e-rate perspective basically what that means is broadband connectivity to the internet are the the
core eligibilities here as far as the services are concerned.
The law also specifies a number of
different types of equipment that are eligible and I've spelled those out here at the bottom of
this particular slide wi-fi hotspots and I'm sure that'll be of interest to a lot of libraries
that loan out hotspots now to patrons that don't currently have internet access in their
households modems, routers and I specifically highlighted end user connected devices
because again people that are familiar with the e-ray program realize that since the program's
inception back in 1997 end user devices tablets, laptops for example and in the old days the
late 90s uh desktop units were never eligible from the e-rate perspective but they are now
as part of this Emergency Connectivity Fund. So, the fund uh that was passed as part of the
American Rescue Plan Act a couple of weeks ago and signed by President Biden, includes just over
seven billion dollars and as a point of reference what I did is include the 2020 rate fund demand
which is just under 3 billion dollars, so when you look at seven billion you say obviously that's
more than twice as much as the demand that we had uh in the 2020 e-rate program here but I
think the important thing to keep in mind here is that this seven billion dollars is going to
have to be stretched over a couple year period in part because it's going to have
to cover the length of the pandemic and I don't think unfortunately we're going
to see the pandemic go away anytime soon. The fund is from the U.S.
Treasury
not from the Universal Service Fund. Now I make note of this because perhaps from the
end user library or school perspective it's not that critical where the fund comes from but
a lot of us that deal with this on a daily basis from a more policy perspective are very much
concerned about the pressure that is being paced, placed on the current universal service fund
to fund not just the e-rate program but the other three universal service programs
as well and that is fund is taken from a surcharge if you will some people refer to it as a
tax on your phone bill and the percentage of that surcharge if you will keeps going higher and
higher so we're very much concerned about the future of the Universal Service Fund but the good
news from our perspective in relationship to the seven billion dollars is it's coming out of the
U.S.
Treasury. Another point that I highlight here that I think Don had mentioned just a couple of
minutes ago is that the reimbursements for those telecommunication costs, internet connectivity,
and the hardware that I mentioned on the previous slide are going to be reimbursed at a hundred
percent of whatever those costs happen to be and again familiarity with e-rate program tells
us that we all know about the discount matrix that's been in existence since the program
started the 20 to 90 percent discount, depending on your level of poverty of as measured
by the Free and Reduced Lunch Program that has no play if you will in relationship to this emergency
connectivity fund because 100 percent of the costs are going to be eligible. However, there
is a uh a safeguard mechanism if you will, in the act itself that says the cost cannot
exceed amount that the FCC deems as reasonable. So I think if a library for example were to
charge a thousand dollars for a wi-fi hotspot likely the FCC would come back and say there's
something wrong with that it's way too high. The funding starts when the pandemic
starts and that was declared by the Secretary of Health and Human Services back at the
end of January of last year so over 14 months ago. I put a question mark on this slide because I do
think the legislation itself makes it quite clear that this retroactive payment is available to
schools and libraries that may already have purchased for instance wi-fi units for loaning out
to their patrons back to the start of the pandemic but the FCC does ask about this whether uh that is
in fact the case and whether it has the ability to set a different start date.
As far as the end date
when I mentioned before that the seven billion dollars has to stretch likely over a couple of
years there's somewhat convoluted language in the act itself I won't get into a lot of details
there but suffice it to say that I think in all likelihood that this fund is going to have to go
at least through uh 2023 and perhaps into 2024. uh the regulations are required uh in the act
itself right up front it says that the FCC has 60 days in which to develop regulations for the
Emergency Connectivity Fund and when you stop and think about it that this is pretty much a whole
new program allowing off-campus connectivity, that's a lot of information a lot of rules and
regulations that the FCC is going to have to develop in a fair fairly short period of time.
When I mentioned before I think President Biden signed the American rescue plan act March 11th
or March 12th you know basically if you just forward that 60 days you're talking about a May
10th, 12th, 14th date in which the FCC is going to have its rules and regulations out the door.
One
of the things I note here is that you know there's no language in the act itself on the actual
application process and a lot of the real details are simply not there from a statutory point of
view, so again the FCC is going to have to develop a whole host of rules and regulations to cover
that. One thing we do know that is in the act that the Universal Service Administrative Company,
USAC, that we're all familiar with because they administer the current era program they
will be the agency that administers the meeting, so at least we're familiar with that process
because uh USAC of course has been working with the e-rate program since its start and whatever
develops out of the FCC's rules and regulations USAC then will be responsible for actually
implementing that on a daily basis. So the FCC wasn't required by the act to release
a public notice but it did so late last week and it's seeking comments from the public
from schools, libraries, uh providers, public interest organizations, anyone that really wants
to comment on okay how should you the FCC craft this particular program so that we can maximize
the benefits for our schools and libraries and initial comments are due uh on the 5th of
April that's about a week and a half from now and then reply comments are due on the 23rd of
April.
I can assure you that the American Library Association that I work for is already working
on their comments and I know many many other organizations are working on comments as well and
the notice when you read through it it asks 92 different questions again specifically where the
FCC is asking for input on developing developing the rules and regulations on the program and
I just put one in here in the text box is, "Should the FCC require schools and libraries
to conduct a needs assessment for equipment and services and then to align their funding requests
with their needs assessments?" now I think a lot of us would say well that sounds like overkill
and the current e-rate program doesn't allow that so this new Emergency Connectivity Fund should not
allow that as well but this is the type of input that the FCC is seeking and again this is just
one of over 90 questions that they ask input on so that's going to keep a lot of organizations
busy over the next week or so developing these comments and then there's really
[computer voice] joined the meeting [Bob Bocher] So Don, I think
that's the end of my introduction and i'll turn the program back over to you.
[Don Means] That's great Bob uh really tight uh coverage of a lot of uh points uh a couple
of questions came up.
One, the classic slides question thank you Steve for uh putting
your email up uh if uh you Bob and and John are willing to share your slides by email or
if you have a link where you're posting them, please put that in the chat. Otherwise
we're not capable or ready to handle files and forwarding those and I can
[Bob Bocher] Yeah. I'll put my url in the chat in just a second here.
[Don Means] Excellent and uh though they will be recorded you know this will be up in a few
days and so you could play it back and see that uh question about uh reasonable cost.
So,
what's what's how are they going to determine what's reasonable I'm I'm kind of jumping in
a little Q and A here in the middle but that was one of the questions that came up what's
what's a reasonable cost for, you know, a new connectivity or uh for uh fees for hot spots?
Are those going to be ongoing? And and you said to optimize or maximize the benefit is that for
today, is that for the day after tomorrow and how do you balance what is the primary uh goal of the
of the program? Is it's an emergency goal? So you would think it'd be near term but we don't want to
just spend money that'll have no after effect so any any of those items are kind of related, Bob?
[Bob Bocher] For example in the notice that I mentioned before that the FCC released seeking
public comment, they have a paragraph in there on page 11 where they outline some of the
costs for example they say they're aware that there are costs for Chromebooks as the end user
device for connectivity if you will, in prices ranging from about 150 dollars on up over to 600
dollars.
So again, this I think going to make it difficult for the FCC to set a particular
threshold uh for those Chromebook devices. There's also uh wi-fi devices that you know uh
vary considerably depending on what type of plan you have for example, maybe the initial device
doesn't cost anything at all but it does require the library or school to sign up for a 12-month
connectivity plan or maybe there's an initial cost of 50 or 100 then with a lower monthly
fee so there's a lot of different variations in relationship to these costs and i think
it's going to make it a little bit difficult for the FCC to really set some type of uh rather
arbitrary figure in relationship to those costs. [Don Means] I I think you make a great point
there and it's to worry someone how they will be able to manage so many variations and so
many requests for new kinds of expenditures, it's really going to be a challenge for them.
[Bob Bocher] Right and I'll also note that they also recognize the differences from a geographic
perspective.
This comes into play not so much from an equipment point of view you know chances
are a router costs about the same in Alaska as it does in my state of Wisconsin but from the
connectivity point of view as far as internet access is concerned, you know a likelihood in
rural areas beat Alaska or even the north woods of Wisconsin internet connectivity is considerably
more expensive than it is in urban areas, so they do make note of that but again this is an
issue are they going to set a threshold standard for internet connectivity costs in urban areas
versus rural areas uh it just uh is another one of those questions that they open for comment.
[Don Means] Absolutely. So theoretically, this is an opportunity for fiber to any library
which is a long way from where we are. We made the example like in Montana there are only four
of the 117 libraries in the state of Montana that have a 100 megabit connection or greater and the
bottom 10 don't even have five which is I think pretty common in a lot of in a lot of states so
that's a long way from the goal, the Gigabit goal, for every library that was you know 10 years
old is there enough money to to run that kind of you know high performance connectivity
to all the libraries during this fund? [Bob Bocher] Yeah, good question.
[Don Means] Okay all right well let's uh let's move on Steve, I know you uh have to leave
a little early today but thank you for making time thank you for coming back uh Steve it heads up the
telecom he's the telecom lead partner for Kelly Dry, a large firm based in DC but has helped
us with comments and is available for similar to help to anybody, Steve welcome.
[Steve Augustino] Hey welcome Don, thank you.
I'm going to start sharing my
screen put my presentation out there um Sorry. Let me pick the right one here um
anyway yeah now I appreciate that hopefully everybody can see the the screens up here um
a couple of different things I as I said I'm happy to share the slides just email me here.
I will note we also did a webinar a week ago on the entire universal service program we do it
once a year and we've done it for a dozen years now, so if anybody wants that I'll send you that
link too. We talk about this we talk about some of the other things um I knew what Bob was doing so
I appreciate that I won't go into the details of it I do want to answer one of the questions that
was asked about connected devices. This is the definition of connected devices laptop computers,
tablet computers or similar end-user devices. The FCC in the Emergency Broadband Program also
adopted a definition of laptops and I suspect it's going to be rather similar between the two
I'll go in and talk about that in just a second but they covered their laptops, desktop computers,
tablets but not smartphones and they required that the device be able to support video or video
conferencing.
So I would suspect that's we're going to get something similar here
I wanted to talk in my section really just give some perspective here and um some of the
challenges that I think the FCC is going to face in trying to stand up this program. First, in
terms of the perspective there's a lot of going on there's a lot of money that is being devoted
towards addressing the pandemic and the gaps in in digital connectivity really the pandemic
has just shown a light on the digital divide and the impact that has across the country. So,
before the Emergency Connectivity Fund earlier this year the FCC also stood up an emergency
broadband program and this chart shows some of the differences between those two that program was
3.2 billion dollars also outside of the Universal Service Program outside of the low income fund
there this is seven billion dollars and outside of the e-rate program. It um had a similar
situation it covers the emergency plus 90 days, whereas the Emergency Connectivity Fund is going
to cover the emergency plus up to the next June 30th um as Bob mentioned there's a difference
about whether this is retroactive the Emergency Broadband Fund is not going to be retroactive
it will start up probably sometime next week. It adds new participants in there and getting
broadband out whereas this program does not look like it's going to do that the FCC asked
a question but they really said is it only the existing eligible schools and libraries.
So
I don't think this is going to really expand who participates but it will will provide
additional funding on this. The funding in the low-income program was up to 50 dollars a month
for the broadband and up to a hundred dollars for the equipment if the consumer had a co-pay of
between 10 and 50 dollars. Here it's going to be 100 percent of the reasonable cost and you know
I've seen some of the questions there and they're definitely tough questions about how the FCC would
identify those costs the you know they talk about setting caps and I know Funds for Learning has
some ideas on how to approach that so I won't, I won't go into that but I um think that
there's a you know there's quite a lot of difficulty for the FCC in doing that and then the
emergency broadband is for low-income consumers. Now some of those low-income consumers may be
families with school-age children or families who are using libraries so there's some
potential overlap between these two programs and I think that's something the FCC will have to
definitely look at um I also wanted to note just to for those who did participate in the FCC's
public notice last month about off-campus uses in the e-rate program, the FCC has added that
record into this Emergency Connectivity Fund record so they can draw from suggestions that
were made there on how to stand up this fund um among the challenges here's a couple
things that the first one I really have is is this too much for the FCC to handle and
too much for USAC to handle? As Bob noted um they only have 60 days to do this, USAC
is going to be the one that administers this, there is remarkably little statutory guidance for
this program the uh the statutory provisions are two pages long.
So two pages for seven billion
dollars is not much guidance for the agency on how to make this work um so we know we also
assume they're gonna be they're gonna have to leverage USAC and leverage the e-rate program
to make this work and we've all seen before the rape program had its challenges in handling those
kinds of requests and USAC reviewing things in a timely manner and I think all of those are up for
question as we are dealing with this program too um we will have many many voices and making
sure that they all are heard is important.
So I want to implore everybody here um you should
participate, even if you participated earlier it makes sense to do so again um so that the
FCC hears and understands and knows what you're facing and also has a chance to understand
those questions about what's reasonable, what's going to be involved in you taking
advantage of this program and expanding those services to library patrons off campus or or
school children after school for remote learning? The other challenge for the FCC is sorting through
the duplication and ensuring that they are not otherwise already funding things that are
otherwise funded.
There's duplication potentially with the current e-rate program, there's
duplication with this emergency broadband program, there's duplication with state sources of funding
that were created during the pandemic there's potential duplication with other federal sources
for building out broadband networks. So it's going to be a real challenge for the FCC on that front
as well and so while we'll get rules out in 60 days standing up the program and making it work is
going to continue far beyond that and I think you know we're going to be talking about this through
the summer at least on how to make this work. Those were the major things I
wanted to cover on this I know John has um things to talk about with Funds for
Learning so I wanted to, I'll hang around um and be ready to answer questions. I don't have to
leave here until about 10 minutes to noon so I've got another 15 I can hang around.
Okay?
[Don Means] That's great Steve uh and and you have set up you know even more questions. It seems
like we're building a mountain of questions here uh I think your summer time frame for tackling
those, answering those is uh reasonable and the overlap I hadn't really thought about the
overlap of the duplication of the programs but that that's a big one and you know the the staff
like at IMLS and and USAC are already you know pretty much maxed out, so how they're gonna
be able to absorb this is just a huge question uh you know the coherence of guidance that
they're be getting from recipients and applicants and how closely those align probably will be
really important even more important this time because they just can't solve all the problems
and so this is what we've heard from John here repeatedly that you know action needs to be
taken today to help set that up and it's it's on us as the recipients of these programs to offer
leadership to the the people that are trying to serve us.
So, John how how's that really going
to work, I mean we're kind of talking about it today but this is a long way to go from talking
about it and we've only got now less than 50 days to uh file something. So John welcome
back or no for the first time and [John Harrington] Yeah, I think my colleague Kathy
Krazan is happy to join you before so and I've I've gotten to sit on the other side it's
very exciting to be on this side of the uh uh the the meeting today uh I want to first of all
Don, just commend you for your leadership uh you know you just talked about this the importance
of leadership and uh what you have done here uh in in this venue and of course just an overall
in the library community, it's greatly appreciated and admired and I'm certainly very grateful
for the the thought leadership that you offer the community.
You know, this this season to me
feels like a gigantic civics lesson with the no huddle two-minute offense you know it's a it's
a kind of a ridiculous convergence of events and you know here we are with this tremendous
opportunity to help support our communities by getting connections to uh under-connected,
disconnected students and library patrons and yet we know that the stakes are very very high
not just for those students today but also for the future.
I do see that uh you know one of one of
the things that's we've all seen over the past year with the pandemic is that it's it's it's it's
brought to light issues that were already present in our communities. The homework gap, the digital
divide this was not created over the past year but this moment in time has brought that
issue to the forefront uh you know the the the powerful dramatic role of libraries in communities
was already there and now so many more people are aware of the fact that library uh is not not some
antiquated entity gathering dust but actually a a a stronghold in our communities for digital
resources and so on and again that was there but now it's it's so much the awareness
of that was great is so much greater. So in this moment I see an opportunity
for us to provide feedback to the FCC about this emergency connectivity fund.
I also
see us with an opportunity to really establish a precedent for how we can as a community,
responsibly effectively manage these resources I think the uh the best case scenario would
be on the other side of this we can point back and demonstrate to congress, to the FCC what an
effective job we've all been able to do uh in in deploying these resources and getting our citizens
connected, so that there are other opportunities more sustainable long-term programs that we can
access. So, I'm going to just very quickly share a few ideas we have about how we might tackle this
uh EmergencyConnectivity Fund uh and I've shared a link to the presentation. I'm going to kind of
share an abbreviated version of the presentation, just given our time constraints today
but I do want to take you through uh the high level uh summary of what we are
thinking about uh you know as has already been alluded to seven billion dollars is a lot
of money but it is when you when divided across all of the K through 12 students, across
all the library branches it ends up being a rather modest amount of funny, funding.
So
the challenge is how do you dial in support to make sure that that money delivers the maximum
impact to those that really need it the most and we estimate that if done effectively
that this ECF program could help serve at least seven million students getting them
online connected into classrooms and so on uh when I think about this challenge I sort of look at
it like this we've got we've got this one-hundred percent reimbursement that we've been uh provided
by congress for this 7.171 billion dollar fund. We've been told it's for remote learning and that
it's limited to reasonable expenses. So somewhere between those factors is the solution for how this
program can be structured. Of course there's other constraints as well, we want to make sure that
these dollars are spent fairly and equitably equitably. We want to see the most funding
going to the communities, to the individuals that need it the most. We also know that we want
to see flexible solutions when we're talking about cost-effective solutions or really meeting the
needs in a particular community it's important not to be prescriptive, so how can this program
provide flexible solutions? We also know that the time is is now for funding not only uh for
the rule making itself but to get the funds, the resources out into the community so that they can
really have an impact and of course there's this whole issue that uh Steve and Bob have already
alluded to you know we've got to make sure these dollars are spent well that we can account for
them that there are reasonable expenses uh that uh that you know these uh it's very important that
the public have confidence that the dollars have been spent as they were intended.
So right there
in the middle somehow is a solution space you know this is and it's a little narrower you know
than that overall broad field how can we how can we deliver all that and do that in a very short
time? Our proposal has five primary elements. We're looking at a modified e-rate process to
reduce the burden on applicants and to lower administrative costs. A student-centered approach
really taking a page out of the e-rates playbook, we think will provide the most effective aid
to communities. A two-track application process that we think will be fast, fair, and flexible and
then a very broad inclusive eligible services list to serve communities again meeting the needs
where they're at and then last but not least continuing, really in the grand tradition of
the e-rate program by having a a vast warehouse of data which provides accountability for all
of the various stakeholders in the community. The e-rate program leveraging the existing e-rate
program is a natural fit in our national survey that we conducted our 10th survey last summer,
we're about to kick off our next survey so keep your eyes out for that.
82 percent of applicants
said that the e-rate program would be the most practical solution for remote learning support
and we also know from that same survey that only seven percent of applicants now are dissatisfied
with with use act. So there's there's a reservoir of trust and familiarity uh with the existing
e-rate program that we think could really help reduce the burden on applicants, lower the
risk for mistakes and fraud and ultimately help save money which means more money for
the program itself. Of course, yesterday was the close of the e-rate filing window and
applicants have been in there using that system and being able to sort of step back into familiar
waters we think would lower the learning curve and lead to fewer mistakes because again it's a
familiar system and of course there are school and library staff today that are already accountable
for using those e-rate tools and resources uh they they already know what to do and they're
sort of on standby to prepare additional paperwork if necessary.
The e-rate program provides
cost-effective solutions, it helps lower prices and uh you know we want to uh we want to
lean into that, we think that it's uh a successful model and let's not break uh or let's not fix
what isn't broken, shall we say? uh the EPC system uh is a mature tested system, it's not my favorite
system that's the online e-rate portal it has plenty of room for improvement and yet it is known
uh it is it works uh we sort of know which four steps to take and maybe it should be two steps but
we know the four steps and we can do that today. We don't have all the risk of trying to build a
new system, deploy a new system, get users trained on a new system when we leverage that existing
resource and there are some very practical considerations for example the EPC system has
already set up and identified user accounts accounts for library systems a bank account
information has already been securely set up and stored in this system and when we're talking
about trying to get funds out quickly and securely those are some very practical considerations we
have to think about and ultimately again retooling that existing system we think will help lower
administrative costs.
Our basic proposal is to ask the FCC to set that reasonable amount that's
already been discussed based on the size of a school or a library system and the percentage of
students who qualify for free and reduced priced lunch. So, rather than trying to come up with a
catalog of approved equipment or approved services and allowable charges associated with that, that
the FCC would follow that model developed for the e-rate category 2 system and set limits for those
reasonable reimbursement amounts and this would we think give schools and libraries the flexibility
to pick those solutions that best fit their needs and still give the the FCC assurance that there is
a limit to how much money will be requested and be committed to any one particular applicant. This,
by following this type of model it provides the most support to the communities with the highest
need and it off offers a lot of flexibility.
So I have an example here of of how uh giving libraries
flexibility can really maximize the use of these different funding sources. So for example, if in
a community uh the EBB program has been used uh very effectively uh we could imagine a situation
in which instead of thinking about hot spots maybe the the library or the school wants to
focus their energy on connected learning devices or it could be just the opposite maybe uh you
know maybe your library system has leveraged Cares Funds and you've got a a strong pool of
connected learning devices that you can check out but you lack the connectivity, the hot spots.
So having that sort of flexibility to look at your particular circumstance the the mix of
goods and services that you might need to serve the community we think uh would would
create an environment that has the highest likelihood of success that would be the most
effective for serving a particular community. The application process that we imagine is a
two-track system.
One track is the standard track for schools and libraries about 6.3 billion
dollars would be set aside for the typical e-rate application process uh schools libraries
would submit their application on a form 471 and that form 471 would be subject to a maximum
reimbursement amount tied to the size of the library and the e-rate discount rate. We also
envisioned sort of a sec a separate track, a state special request fund that would
be submitted on a form 471 application but would go through a slower, more deliberative
uh review process uh just sort of think a rubric committee review that those would be handled
at a sort of a special desk to award large funding commitments for states that are in special
circumstances, have special projects to address the remote learning fund.
So, in this way we're
able to offer libraries that submit applications a very timely a funding commitment decision and a
timely disbursement of funding, while at the same time providing some extra flexibility for states
who are interested in perhaps special projects. The eligible services list we think should be as
broad as possible and that the standard is the connected learner. So rather than sort of focusing
on the device it's really about the learner uh the providing not only just a piece of equipment but
something that can get online, get into class.
So you know we would we would allow for
example any hardware software or service that the library or school is necessary says
is necessary to get that student into class, whether that's a laptop or a microphone headset
a unified communication system a virtual device, cyber security, anything that's necessary to sort
of be installed on that device or sent out with that device so that a student can use it we think
should be eligible and again subject to an overall limitation so that uh there is a good fiscal,
control fiscal accountability uh and the last point on this slide uh is one that's sort
of I think been raised in the chat as well and that is the off-campus connections. Is there
the opportunity to extend networks on campus, off-campus? So you know if there is a community
of learners across the street from a facility rather than paying 50 dollars a month for hot
spots to serve that community would it be possible to extend a wi-fi connection uh to that community?
And so our answer would be yes a resounding yes and to do so within the constructs of these
per student or per library branch limitations. A few last points to make data transparency
and accountability uh the e-rate program does this well.
The EPC system in which those forms
are submitted online you can look today and see the applications that were submitted yesterday,
which schools which libraries submitted requests, which vendors did they choose, which
services, which equipment did they select, what were they paying for that – we think
that that is the gold standard by which all federal programs should operate and certainly
this ECF should provide that type of data not only does it help ensure better decision-making
and cost-effective decisions but it also provides us the basis for future research,
future analysis on the efficacy of this program. Quickly, if you are not familiar with the
category 2 e-rate discount budget system that we are modeling this off, this sort of shows
you just the basic math for a library facility. We look at the square footage of that facility,
multiply it times a budget factor of four dollars and fifty cents per square foot, times the e-rate
discount rate that your library system qualifies for and that gives you the maximum reasonable
reimbursement amount.
So you would receive a hundred percent reimbursement up to that amount
and we do include a minimum twenty five thousand dollar uh reasonable reimbursement amount times
the discount rate of your library branch. So a library with fifteen thousand square feet uh with
a uh a forty percent discount rate qualification, would qualify for up to a twenty seven thousand
dollar reimbursement for connections or connected learning devices. That same sized library in a
community that qualifies for an eighty five e rate uh eighty-five percent e-rate discount
would qualify for a maximum reimbursement of up to fifty seven thousand three hundred and
seventy five dollars. So again that would be a hundred percent reimbursement up to that that
amount and this because we have all the e-rate data already loaded already in the EPC system
this could all roll out relatively quickly and and because we have that information
we can already forecast the results so what this chart illustrates is the average
amount of funding per library based on the e-rate discount rate associated with that
facility and you can see it goes up generally as you approach those libraries that serve
communities with the highest poverty levels the table on the right there shows you the number
of facilities that are in the uh USAC system today and the amount of funding that we estimate they
would qualify for uh ECF funding uh by discount rates.
So, if you look at the bottom two lines
there where it says an 80 percent discount or an 85 percent discount rate those are communities
that have at least 50 percent of their students eligible for free and reduced price lunch, you
can see the the majority of the funds about two-thirds of the funding about 460 million or so
we estimate would be available for the branches that serve students and library patrons in those
communities and with that I will stop my share. [Don Means] That was a lot share
uh John, thank you for that. We could spend a lot of time looking at those
slides numbers and doing calculations so a group of questions have come in related to security,
CIPA uh filtering uh for you know these extensions and and a really interesting point related
to staffing.
So this is a lot of technology and services but they have to be integrated I mean
you have to deal with security issues as well, do you think this will allow for and I don't know
about the timing how long it takes to find and train people that can actually implement these
things, the tendency it seems like will be just to offload it to a vendor you know just handle all
this stuff for us we can't really do this in-house but are there enough people out of vendors
out there that can do that kind of a thing? Do you think it will cover personnel costs
related to these whole range of upgrades that's for both you and and for Bob, John.
[John Harrington] Yeah, well I'll I'll say the the what congress gave the FCC is extremely
broad and you know once this precedent is set it will be set and if there are future programs uh
they will likely follow the framework that this uh this program does.
So, I think it is up to us as
a community to really educate the FCC they've been given very broad latitude I mean it would be hard
to have less guidance uh as to what really defines this and what it all entails and I think this
is our moment to really help the FCC understand what it takes, what all is involved in connecting
a learner and you know to me again the standard here is a connected learner, a connected library
patron what is required for them to be online? I believe that is the spirit of which this law
was passed it was about hey we want to make sure that these individuals in the community can get
online and that has much more to do than that that involves much more than just a Chromebook.
[Bob Bocher] The two points quickly add to that uh one of which is you know similar to the current
e-rate program it doesn't really cover I don't see this uh fund covering staffing costs per se but
from a contractual point of view for example, if the library wanted to contract with
a third party to provide wi-fi hotspots and to supply the needed support for those
hot spots that I'm fairly certain would be eligible under this particular program.
The other
point I'll note that I made in the chat is that the American Rescue Plan Act included 200 million
dollars to IMLS and most of that funding is going to go out to individual public libraries and
all likelihood libraries are going to be able to use some of that from a staffing perspective
to help support uh any one of these uh you know outreach uh internet connectivity
options they might want to choose. [Don Means] Let's hope so, that's a good point
and maybe one to be reasserted to IMLS if they're understanding that um but uh the it seems
like the the I don't want to say knee jerk but the automatic solution is just to try to
buy 20 million hot spots and hand them out, you know to everybody that's not
connected that seems not the best approach from a number of reasons but what would prevent
that from being what everybody tries to do they're already kind of doing that halfway now.
[Bob Bocher] Right, I don't see anything necessarily preventing it perhaps
from an educational perspective uh it's important to point out to libraries that
we really need a longer term solution if you will to not only the homework gap but what from the
ALA perspective we term the patron gap because there's a lot of patron households out there that
don't have students that don't have connectivity. So you know we didn't get into this Don at all
but in relationship to the provision of advanced telecommunications and internet services there's
nothing in the act that per se uh references the types of technology to use and you're familiar of
course with all the work that your organization has done on TV Whitespaces uh their citizen
broadband radio service CBRS that's being used, there's other technologies also that are being
used that hopefully would be a little bit more which is a permanent solution to the patron
broadband connectivity than just a library and I'm not just saying this is wrong but uh
for a library to buy you know 30 or 40 or 100 different uh wi-fi hotspots to loan out.
There's
again nothing wrong with that but that's probably more of a temporary short-term type solution.
[Don Means] Well that would be that would be a kind of a turning point I think on this whole
approach are we are we just trying to get through the next 24 months, are we trying
to actually use this opportunity to build to to both respond in the short term and
lay down something that will last and we can build on for the years ahead right?
[Bob Bocher] I always say that one of the ironies here is that we've had this homework gap
patron gap for forever for the most part and one of the ironies here is that maybe it's going to
take this pandemic to help solve that well that. [Don Means] That may be true on a
whole range of of issues as well so um are there and are there enough vendors out there
that can accommodate the demand do you think? for [Bob Bocher] Oh I think so but maybe uh John
wants to comment on that maybe he has his finger on the pulse of that better than I do.
[John Harrington] I think so I think uh I think that there's a whole ecosystem
that is that is poised and ready to support the communities and again I think it is it
comes down to the biggest challenge we face is how to structure this program in
a way that provides that flexibility, while still uh keeping it from being a runaway
train you know? A hundred percent reimbursement of without any constraints where do you stop you
know? So it uh but but you know my concern is I I don't want to be in a situation where a library
is submitting a request for a device uh and it's you know it's it's a laptop with and they want
to they want to have a mouse with it right and and you're debating with the FCC can it be a ten
dollar mouse you know what it is could it be a fancy mouse like this you know is this allowed or
not allowed um you know it's that that that that adds 24 months to the application review process
and layers and layers of audits and so on uh if if instead we say the the limit is the size of
the school or the library and the level of poverty in the community and then create this environment
where there's a lot of transparency, I mean even to the question of what's to stop someone
from just asking for a whole bunch of stuff? Well all that information is available and you
can see this library system bought 20 of these, how are they using them? You know and that's where
the the local reporter man on the street you know they love to do that stuff uh you know so there's
there's a great accountability when we do this in the public square in the open with flexibility.
[Don Means] Okay there was a there was a point uh maybe a reaction to the point I made about
connecting or upgrading facilities themselves so this seems to be about connecting students
and patrons who lack connectivity or populations that lack connectivity versus
connecting to facilities themselves.
So the facilities themselves are not especially
for libraries schools more so but less so for libraries actually have levels of connectivity
that are adequate today, so how, they can't they aren't really in a position to extend that service
uh other than just ordering more hot spots so is it is it just restricted to the extensions
of services and not to the facilities themselves and by the way there's a bunch of questions
I know I hope you both are kind of looking at those uh they're too many to kind of get to but
you know jump on them as you see them but on that question related individuals or facilities?
[Bob Bocher] I'm probably more familiar from the school perspective on that in that there are
schools that basically back all that traffic from the student's household back in through the school
network now when the school for the most part didn't have any students in it because they were
all working from home uh that probably wasn't too much of an issue in relationship to the capacity
of that circuit going from the schools lan headend out to the public internet but it certainly does
become an issue as more students get back into the classroom and we still have this homework gap but
again that's done in part for security purposes, uh for CIPA, for certification.
I'm not certain
how many libraries are going to get into that type of connectivity Don, I think it's probably
going to be more working with third-party vendors to try to get access to those patron households
that currently don't have it in a variety of ways as we mentioned before. I should just quickly
note you know in relationship to the technology you know up until this act was passed and
the Emergency Connectivity Fund created uh libraries and schools were able to broadcast
their wi-fi signals out of their parking lot or into the property next door but technically not be
on the library property or school property and of course this allows that and there are ways now in
which a fairly affordable wi-fi extenders and more robust if you will wi-fi types of technology uh
are available to extend that signal out a couple of blocks beyond the library or school property.
[Don Means] Even farther, yes uh we've funded differently as you mentioned we've done
supportive projects using TV Whitespace which has a range of miles uh and uh EBS uh
is a a project where a licensed uh vendor can work with the library to set up extensions
there are a number of cases actually we have a list of cases on the Community SecondNets page at
giglibraries.net there's seven or eight different cases there uh exploring TV Whitespace, EBS, CBRS,
five gigahertz really interesting project we've highlighted on here before uh in Nebraska where
the school district loaded with backhaul shot a line of sight five megahertz, five gigahertz uh
four miles away to a water tower in a small town Plymouth, Nebraska from which the
they deployed uh four uh uh down leaks to library locations in little Plymouth, 400
people with 46 students who otherwise had to drive four miles to the school parking lot to access.
So this is a blend of of collaborations which I think is also going to be a priority in this how
can we leverage you know the schools have a lot of backhaul how can libraries leverage that? How can
they partner and serve their common overlapping uh patron students which a lot of them have? uh
the the security issue on on checkout hot spots remains kind of vague is that is there a way to do
that, is there a way to filter a checkout hotspot? [Bob Bocher] Uh yes some of the uh fairly
common uh known hotspot vendors or providers uh do have filtering on those hot spots and I should
note I think there are a couple of comments here in the chat in relationship to the Children's
Internet Protection Act and certainly as I read uh the language of the the act itself doesn't
say anything about that the statute itself but as I look at there's a section in the
FCC's notice that asks about CIPA and its uh application to the emergency connectivity
fund and I certainly I think it does apply and let me just slightly digress here to say that ALA
has been pushing the FCC on this for many years. It has always been the association's position that
that end user device that you know tablet that a patron might have when he or she comes into the
library that device since it's owned by the patron does not have to be filtered.
Now if you get into
a situation where the library purchases a tablet for example to loan out to patrons uh I think in
all likelihood that it has to be filtered but that question is asked in this notice and certainly I
think from ALA perspective will push back and say you know we don't want filtering or we want only
minimal uh needs for this fund to be uh compatible or to have to comport to the restrictions
in the Children's Internet Protection Act. [Don Means] Good.
[John Harrington] I think that uh you know the closely related to that
is just the issue of cyber security as well and uh you know we many of us around the room here
have talked for some time about the the need for support for cyber security within the e-rate
program.
You just cannot operate a network today without advanced security features, which are
now actually just basic you know that is that's the cost of just opening up uh you know turning
on a network and from a end user remote patron perspective you absolutely have to have
these cyber security resources and it is it's if you it's very hard because so many of
these things we're coming at it from our own sort of history with the e-rate and other programs
but if you were just starting with the blank page and saying what do you need to connect remote
learners uh you know cyber security would probably come before an actual device even uh you know
you've you've got to have that platform uh and you know I sort of talked about the the digital bridge
to nowhere.
You you know congress doesn't want to just sort of build these halfway things or or
uh uh provide support for cars without tires you know I mean like you you just you you uh we need
full solutions to bring students, library patrons across the br the digital divide and making the
case for a program that provides a robust suite of services, a robust suite of hardware and software
and the things that are needed to get them online with strong accountability and constraints.
Again, the the dollars if you look at them are not uh very are it's a lot of money but it's not a
lot of money and so uh you know we uh uh it's it's a it's hard to do the messaging on that because
you want to be grateful for seven billion dollars but and and it's very hard to make that go
very far, when you're when you're talking about an issue as broad as the homework gap.
[Don Means] Yeah, yeah. [Bob Bocher] And I should quickly add here
as John knows too, there's a security patient petition that was filed with the FCC back John
maybe in early mid February five weeks before uh asking the FCC to make security tools
robust security tools you rate eligible so that's still pending out there and ALA filed
a supporting letter on that uh I think early March probably about three or four weeks ago.
[Don Means] Okay um we're running over a little bit here so we're going to close in a second I'm
going to come back to each of you uh for a final statement uh I just wanted to put in that our our
work Gigabit Libraries' work and approach has been to extend that access to public places, shared
spaces they're close to people uh you know these uh parks recreation areas, the city hall these
kinds of outlets as uh a bridge to connecting everyone because that takes time it's much it's
not a total solution it's an interim solution, it's a backup solution.
You're you're out your
device goes out you're run out of data you have a place you can go that's a library presence close
to where people are and we think that integrates well into the long term, as well as the near term.
It's something that can be done relatively quickly and relatively inexpensively and
would constitute a permanent asset uh for every community and a way for libraries
to extend themselves into the community. So uh we're gonna wrap here with a kind of call to
action and uh Bob we're gonna go to you first here. What what should we be doing right
now I know we have this comment period but wow uh but what how to how to approach that or or
what what are you going to be working on and what can people do that will match up with that?
[Bob Bocher] Sure specifically from the comment period you know ALA will be submitting comments
basically seeking the broadest possible definition in relationship to advanced telecommunications
and information services and trying to push the FCC to make certain that the underlying
technologies that provide those end-user services like internet connectivity are all going
to be allowed as eligible expenses and not just the expenses for the narrow list of equipment that
is specifically referenced in the statute itself. So you know from the broader perspective the
school and library community have been pushing the FCC on this for well over a year to allow e-rate
funds to be used off-campus, we finally have the statute for statutory authority to do that, we've
got the seven billion dollars it would behoove libraries and schools to take maximum benefit
of this and we hope that when the FCC comes out with its rules and regulations in the middle
of May uh it'll be uh broad enough if you will, easy enough for people to apply that we can jump
on that bandwagon and take advantage of that and help connect these households that
need that type of connection do they have students or just patrons without students.
[Don Means] Great, good thank you uh, John? [John Harrington] Yeah I'd just echo everything
Bob just said and encourage everyone to uh let the FCC know how important this is
uh you know to uh files comments and support of uh probably ALA's comments and others uh
the uh the moment uh is here for us to really I believe help establish new precedent that
connectivity is not about uh you know a brick and mortar location uh you know from our it doesn't
matter you know I'm working from home today right it doesn't matter, I'm here you know and it
should not matter for anyone else and stripping away some of these constructs that have really
held back some of the regulatory framework and and replacing it with new constructs that still
provide support and oversight and accountability but aren't necessarily tied to you know which
side of the street you're on is a really important thing.
So I think just sharing that message.
Also the message that these are not one and done problems uh you know I I cannot tell you how many
times I've been asked well didn't we didn't we pay for that isn't that taken care of you know like
and you know? The nature of this challenge is is an ongoing one and I think the more we can
emphasize that and remind the FCC and and by doing so congress you know that this is an ongoing
challenge and you know we're up to the challenge just just join us and please provide us resources
to do our best to connect our communities. [Don Means] great great I would I would echo those
sentiments entirely uh individuals should submit comments they should join with most of the people
on today I think are parts of larger associations and entities to file in aggregate these are
really effective we've seen this with Shelby which aggregates the largest number of uh entities
under the universal service and probably has more weight just because it tends to align all the
different positions going in, so those are but whoever you relate to you know work with them ask
them what they're doing and and weigh in on that. So we're going to close but as we do I want to
ask everybody to unmute if they would unmute please right now we we want to close and we want
to uh give our uh speakers a round of applause, please.
Everybody can we a handful of speakers
here thank you very much that's great. [applause] Well thank you everybody close our formal session
uh with this and we'll uh stick around for a little off the record chat. Thank you.
[Bob Bocher] Thank you..