UPDATE: FCC Votes to End Biden-Era Wi-Fi Hot Spot Expansion

Late last month, the FCC released orders approved just before the shut down that end E -Rate eligibility and support for Wi-Fi on school buses and Wi-Fi hotspots. Those orders reaffirm that all Program Year 2025 applications for those services will be cancelled and that school districts will receive no funding for them through E-Rate. The order does not suggest that the Commission will attempt to claw back E-Rate funds applicants received for Wi-Fi on school buses in Program Year 2024, when these services were first eligible for E-Rate support. As a practical matter, these orders mean that districts that had planned to use the funds to purchase Wi-Fi hotspots or Wi-Fi on school buses in 2025 cannot do so. If a district has already entered into a contract, it will need to pay either the full cost of these services or cancel them. It is worth noting that Mission Telecom, a Wi-Fi on school buses provider, has agreed to allow districts to pay the E-Rate discount cost for this service for the remainder of this program year, thereby avoiding the need to cancel the contract and/or terminate the service.

The FCC voted 2 to 1 on orders that would make both Wi-Fi on school buses and Wi-Fi hotspots ineligible for E-Rate support. Commissioner Gomez issued strong dissents which argued that the Commission had failed to allow public input before making these decisions, that there was adequate statutory support for allowing the E-Rate to support both, and that there was significant public harm caused by these decisions. We will update the blog with details of the timing of implementation and what the roll back means for districts and libraries who may have applied for this use in the current application cycle.