As children and teachers head back to school, they are relying on an increasing number of wireless devices as educational tools in the classroom. Whether tablets, MacBooks, laptops, or smartphones, effective use of these devices in today’s K-12 environment means a network has never been more critical. While Wi-Fi availability may not be the most pressing concern in all K-12 districts, there are still many school systems wanting to provide reliable wireless access to students, faculty and guests, but struggling to do so.
The Birth of the E-Rate Program
To help address this issue, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1996 developed the Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support program, commonly known as the E-Rate program, which is managed by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). The program’s goal is to help schools and libraries obtain affordable telecommunications services, whether it is the broadband Internet access coming into the building (Category 1) or internal network connections (Category 2) powering the devices within the classroom. The E-Rate program provides discounts ranging from 20 percent to 90 percent of the costs of eligible services. Traditionally, all funding had been devoted to Category 1 funding for broadband connections, leaving little to no money for the internal Wi-Fi and switching equipment purchases (Category 2).
Managed Services and E-Rate
In recent years, the FCC has made sweeping changes to the E-Rate program, greatly expanding the opportunity for K-12 school districts to implement ubiquitous Internet access within the classroom. Accompanying these changes are billions of dollars in funding over the next several years to ensure school districts can fund their Wi-Fi and switching projects.
Here is some background on the new E-Rate program:
- Starting in 2014, the FCC committed $2 billion to funding Wi-Fi projects over the next two years, and $5 billion over the next five years, resulting in a significant increase in applications and funding for Category 2 requests
- Rural and urban school districts will most benefit from this new funding, as the eligibility for E-rate is based upon the percentage of students in the district eligible for the National School Lunch Program
- For the first time, the FCC is allowing a managed network service as an option for schools to consider when implementing a wireless network
- The program allocates a budget of $150 per student over five funding years, or $30 per student annually for managed network services
Figure 1: E-Rate Funding over the Years (Source: Funds for Learning)
The recent E-Rate changes include new coverage for the options of a managed program that might be the most cost-effective solution yet. Managed Internal Broadband Services, an alternative to on-premises solutions, offers school districts a path to apply E-Rate funds towards paying for a managed network service as part of any eligible product, such as access points, routers and switches.
What Does this Mean for MSPs?
Today’s managed service provider is in an ideal position to capitalize on the recent changes to the E-Rate program and pursue business opportunities with school districts. For those MSPs who have traditionally targeted the hosted VoIP market, the transition to managed Wi-Fi or switching services is a natural extension to their business.
Working with school districts, MSPs who offer a managed network solution will be able to:
- Increase revenues from existing customers with additional wrap around services
- Create more stickiness with customers
- Lower the customer’s operational costs through cloud management
- Increase customer reach with affordable solutions
E-Rate is administered under a fiscal year process and schedule which is just getting underway for 2017. Now is the perfect time for MSPs to be studying up on how they can better engage in the E-Rate process and weigh whether it’s a good fit for increasing their education business.
About the author
Jason King is the director of marketing for the ProCloud Managed Services Group at ADTRAN. With over 15 years’ experience in the industry, he is responsible for the overall promotion and positioning of the company’s cloud-managed networking solutions and K-12 marketing efforts. Find him on Twitter @jjking24