The following questions have been excerpted from the FCC's list of 72 questions on Universal Service:
6. Should the services or functionalities eligible for discounts be specifically limited and identified, or should the discount apply to all available services?
7. Does Section 254(h) contemplate that inside wiring or other internal connections to classrooms may be eligible for universal service support of telecommunications services provided to schools and libraries? If so, what is the estimated cost of the inside wiring and other internal connections?
8. To what extent should the provisions of Sections 706 and 708 be considered by the Joint Board and be relied upon to provide advanced services to schools, libraries and health care providers?
9. How can universal service support for schools, libraries, and health care providers be structured to promote competition?
10. Should the resale prohibition in Section 254(h)(3) be construed to prohibit only the resale of services to the public for profit, and should it be construed so as to permit end user cost based fees for services? Would construction in this manner facilitate community networks and/or aggregation of purchasing power?
11. If the answer to the first question in number 10 is "yes," should the discounts be available only for the traffic or network usage attributable to the educational entities that qualify for the Section 254 discounts?
12. Should discounts be directed to the states in the form of block grants?
13. Should discounts for schools, libraries, and health care providers take the form of direct billing credits for telecommunications services provided to eligible institutions?
14. If the discounts are disbursed as block grants to states or as direct billing credits for schools, libraries, and health care providers, what, if any, measures should be implemented to assure that the funds allocated for discounts are used for their intended purposes?
15. What is the least administratively burdensome requirement that could be used to ensure that requests for supported telecommunications services are bona fide requests within the intent of section 254(h)?
16. What should be the base service prices to which discounts for schools and libraries are applied: (a) total service long-run incremental cost; (b) short-run incremental costs; (c) best commercially-available rate; (d) tariffed rate; (e) rate established through a competitively-bid contract in which schools and libraries participate; (f) lowest of some group of the above; or (g) some other benchmark? How could the best commercially-available rate be ascertained, in light of the fact that many such rates may be established pursuant to confidential contractual arrangements?
17. How should discounts be applied, if at all, for schools and libraries and rural health care providers that are currently receiving special rates?
18. What states have established discount programs for telecommunications services provided to schools, libraries, and health care providers? Describe the programs, including the measurable outcomes and the associated costs.
19. Should an additional discount be given to schools and libraries located in rural, insular, high-cost and economically disadvantaged areas? What percentage of telecommunications services (e.g., Internet services) used by schools and libraries in such areas are or require toll calls?
20. Should the Commission use some existing model to determine the degree to which a school is disadvantaged (e.g., Title I or the national school lunch program)? Which one? What, if any, modifications should the Commission make to that model?
21. Should the Commission use a sliding scale approach (i.e., along a continuum of need) or a step approach (e.g., the Lifeline assistance program or the national school lunch program) to allocate any additional consideration given to schools and libraries located in rural, insular, high-cost, and economically disadvantaged areas?
22. Should separate funding mechanisms be established for schools and libraries and for rural health care providers?
23. Are the cost estimates contained in the McKinsey Report and NII KickStart Initiative an accurate funding estimate for the discount provisions for schools and libraries, assuming that tariffed rates are used as the base prices?
24. Are there other cost estimates available that can serve as the basis for establishing a funding estimate for the discount provisions applicable to schools and libraries and to rural health care providers?
25. Are there any specific cost estimates that address the discount funding estimates for eligible private schools?