WASHINGTON-Two powerful telecommunications lawmakers have brought the wireless industry into the debate about the amount of funding for Internet connections for schools and libraries, known as the e-rate.
Reps. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, and Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the telecom subcommittee, have asked William Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, to quantify how much wireless customers paid this year to finance the e-rate and how much customers’ bills will increase to fully fund the e-rate in the coming year.
The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association estimates these amounts to be 20 cents per customer per month and 50 cents to 80 cents per customer per month, respectively. CTIA further estimates wireless customers will pay $600 million to $700 million per year if the e-rate is fully funded at the $2.25 billion level. That is the FCC’s estimate of how much the e-rate will cost to fully connect schools, libraries and rural health centers. Last year, the FCC cut this amount by $1.3 billion after telecom customers and Congress complained.
The Personal Communications Industry Association did not have the estimates readily available due to members’ antitrust concerns, said PCIA’s Angela Giancarlo. Giancarlo did say the amounts were substantial and that is the reason PCIA supports a bill Tauzin introduced earlier this month.
Tauzin’s bill would eliminate two-thirds of the telephone excise tax and use the remaining 1 percent to fund the capital construction costs of the e-rate through block grants to the states. The FCC would be taken out of the capital construction part of the e-rate. This was the most expensive and most controversial part of this year’s funding.
The Schools and Libraries Internet Access bill is a response to what Republicans call the Gore Tax, named after the vice president who has championed connecting all schools and libraries to the Information Superhighway by the turn of the century. The Republican National Committee is urging visitors to its Web site to call Kennard and Gore and say they support the Tauzin bill and do not support Kennard’s plan to fully fund the e-rate this year.
