Check out the following:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/36634.asp

An excerpt is below:

In less than three weeks, the Federal Communications Commission will
receive a recommendation outlining how an estimated annual pool of $4
billion to $12 billion should be collected and disbursed to wire the
nations schools and libraries to the Internet.
But the decision is of interest to more than just parents with
students in school. The cost of connecting schools and libraries to the
Internet will be added to the monthly bills of telephone customers.
The recommendation will come from a joint federal-state board, which
the FCC convened after the passage in February of the Telecommunications Ac=
t
of 1996. By Nov. 8, the eight-member board must recommend how the nations
K-12 schools, libraries and medical institutions will gain access to
advanced telecommunications services at affordable rates.
President Clinton earlier this month pitched a plan to the FCC that
would invoke an "E-rate," or educational rate, that would provide a discoun=
t
for schools and libraries connecting to the Internet.
"I call on the FCC, when it votes, to give every elementary, middle
and high school and every library in the country the lowest possible E-rate=
:
free basic service to the Internet," Clinton said Oct. 10 in Knoxville,
Tenn. "For more sophisticated services, like teleconferencing, the FCC
should require discounted rates, with the deepest discounts going to the
poorest schools and areas. I urge the FCC and the state regulators who have
a say in this to make the E-rate a reality for our schools."
Making the E-rate, or any other plan, a reality will require a
reworking of the FCCs universal service fund. Gigi Sohn of the Media Access
Project on the key issues facing the FCC and who should contribute to the
universal service fund=20
The fund was established shortly after the original Telecommunications
Act was passed in the 1930s. It created a series of subsidies based on
long-distance access charges. Basically, long-distance phone calls created
extra revenue that was shared with phone companies providing phone service
in rural and hard-to-reach areas. The fund made sure citizens in rural area=
s
weren't paying exorbitant amounts for basic phone service.
Greg Simon, the vice president=92s chief domestic policy adviser, said
earlier this month that the current universal service fund will be
restructured to include improved access for the nation=92s schools, librari=
es
and medical institutions.=20
Once it gets a recommendation from the joint board, the FCC has
until May 1997 to adopt a plan of action.
But the joint board has a number of issues to wrestle with between
now and its early-November deadline.

Lyle Evans  evansl@vt.edu

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