IV. Schools, Libraries, and Health Care Providers
A. Goals and Principles
71. Among the seven universal service principles established in the 1996 Act is the principle that "elementary and secondary schools and classrooms, health care providers, and libraries should have access to advanced telecommunications services."[158] The Act allows the Commission to designate additional, special services for universal service support for eligible schools, libraries and health care providers.[159] In this section we propose to implement Sections 254(c)(3) (allowing the Commission to designate additional services for such support mechanisms for schools, libraries, and health care providers) and 254(h)(1) (providing guidance on rates and discounts for rural health care providers and educational providers and libraries). As to Section (h)(1), we discuss and seek comment on what services, in addition to the core services discussed in Section III, should be made available to schools, libraries and rural health care providers at a discount.[160] We also seek comment on issues relating to the implementation of Section 254(h)(1) relating to support mechanisms that would enable eligible schools, libraries, and rural health care providers to receive both the core and advanced telecommunications services included among those eligible for universal service support.[161]
72. Access to telecommunications services is important to schools, classrooms, libraries and rural health care providers for a number of reasons. Congress explicitly recognized the importance of telecommunications to these educational institutions and rural health care providers in enacting this legislation:
The ability of K-12 [kindergarten to 12th grade] classrooms, libraries and rural health care providers to obtain access to advanced telecommunications services is critical to ensuring that these services are available on a universal basis. The provisions of subsection (h) will help open new worlds of knowledge, learning and education to all Americans rich and poor, rural and urban. They are intended, for example, to provide the ability to browse library collections, review the collections of museums, or find new information on the treatment of illness, to Americans everywhere via schools and libraries. This universal access will assure that no one is barred from benefiting from the power of the Information Age.[162]
Modern two-way, interactive capabilities will not only enable users at schools, libraries and rural health care facilities to access information, but also give students the ability to participate in educational activities at other schools, including universities; allow students, teachers, librarians and rural health care providers to consult with colleagues or experts at other institutions; may allow parents to participate more easily in their children's education by communicating with the school's telecommunications system; and may facilitate the transmission of data for the practice of telemedicine. Finally, as advanced telecommunications services become ubiquitous, technological literacy will become even more important to our economy. Exposure to telecommunications services for our nation's school children will provide them with skills needed for jobs in a technologically advanced society.
73. In this section, we focus on three tasks that are essential to the implementation of the provisions of the 1996 Act discussed in the foregoing paragraph. First, we seek to identify the services to be supported by federal universal service support mechanisms for schools, libraries and rural health care providers.[163] For schools and libraries, the Act requires that services provided by telecommunications carriers receiving universal service support be "for educational purposes."[164] For rural health care providers, services provided by telecommunications carriers supported by universal service support mechanisms must be those that are "necessary for the provision of health care services in a State."[165]
74. Next, we consider ways to implement the support mechanisms for schools, libraries and rural health care providers. For schools and libraries, we seek comment on how to formulate discount methodologies that ensure that each discount is "an amount that . . . is appropriate and necessary to ensure affordable access to and use of such services by such entities."[166] For rural health care providers, this task includes, inter alia, determination of the method to be used by each carrier in calculating the "amount equal to the difference, if any, between the rates for services provided to health care providers for rural areas in a State and the rates for similar services provided to other customers in comparable rural areas in that State," for purposes of defining the offset or reimbursement due the carrier under our universal service support rules.[167]
75. We also seek to determine the terms and conditions for the provision of interstate support to telecommunications carriers serving schools and libraries and rural health care providers. We discuss the identification of the health care providers that serve "persons who reside in rural areas," and, correspondingly, the "urban areas in that State."[168] Finally, we discuss which telecommunications carriers may receive universal support pursuant to Section 254.
76. In addition to seeking comment on the approach to the implementation of Section 254(h)(1)(A) discussed below, we seek comment on additional measures that may be necessary to implement this section. We also refer all these issues to the Joint Board for its recommendation.
B. Schools and Libraries
1. What Services to Support
77. Section 254(h)(1)(B) of the Act states:
All telecommunications carriers serving a geographic area shall, upon bona fide request for any of its services that are within the definition of universal service under subsection (c)(3), provide such services to elementary schools, secondary schools, and libraries for educational purposes at rates less than the amounts charged for similar services to other parties. The discount shall be an amount that the Commission, with respect to interstate services, and the States, with respect to intrastate services, determine is appropriate and necessary to ensure affordable access to and use of such services by such entities.
Section 254(c)(3), in turn, states that "[i]n addition to the services included in the definition of universal service under paragraph (1), the Commission may designate additional services for such support mechanisms for schools [and] libraries . . . for the purposes of subsection (h)." We propose that the set of services designated for federal universal service support pursuant to Section 254(c)(1) and any other services designated for support pursuant to Section 254(c)(3) be made available to schools and libraries pursuant to the discount to be considered in this proceeding.
78. We seek comment and Joint Board recommendation on the additional services that carriers must make available to schools and libraries under Section 254(h)(1)(B). As the legislative history makes clear, Congress "expect[ed] the Commission and the Joint Board to take into account the particular needs of . . . K-12 [kindergarten to 12th grade] schools and libraries" in determining which services should be provided at a discount.[169]
79. A February 1996 study, Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, 1995, commissioned by the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the United States Department of Education, observes that these services are not yet widely available in classrooms. Only 9 percent of all instructional rooms (classrooms, labs, and library media centers) are currently connected to the Internet.[170] Schools with large proportions of students from poor families are half as likely to provide Internet access as schools with small proportions of such students.[171] Funding and inadequate telecommunications links were the most frequently cited barriers to acquiring or using advanced telecommunications services in public schools.[172]
80. In determining which telecommunications services to support through universal service mechanisms, our goal is to help elementary and secondary schools and classrooms and libraries to have access to advanced telecommunications services[173] and to help minimize the barriers which exist to provision of telecommunications services to schools and libraries. We seek comment on what functionalities should be supported through universal service mechanisms for schools and libraries and what facilities are required to provide those functionalities.[174] In this regard, we seek guidance on how to determine which services will be provided to schools and libraries at a discount pursuant to Section 254(h)(1)(B), without prescribing a specific technical standard for each funded service. We also seek comment on how we should define "geographic area" for purposes of Section 254(h)(1)(B).
81. In addition, we seek comment on whether wireless technologies may provide a more efficient way of delivering any of the services designated for support. Finally, we also invite comment on how our special definition of services for schools and libraries should reflect future "advances in telecommunications and information technologies and services."[175] We seek comment and Joint Board recommendation on all of these issues.
2. How to Implement
a. Establishment of the Interstate Discount for Schools and Libraries
82. As discussed above,[176] we interpret Section 254(h)(1)(B) of the new Act to entitle schools and libraries to receive discounts on all services falling either within our list of services under Section 254(c)(1) that should receive universal service support, or our list of services for schools and libraries under Section 254(c)(3). Each discount must produce a "rate[] less than the amounts charged for similar services to other parties" and be "an amount that . . . is appropriate and necessary to ensure affordable access to and use of such services by such entities."[177] The 1996 Act gives the Commission the responsibility to establish the discounts on interstate services, while the States are charged with establishing the discounts on intrastate universal services.[178]
83. We seek comment and Joint Board recommendation on the factors to be used in formulating a discount methodology for universal service support for schools and libraries. The methodology could reflect whether the services used are tariffed or whether the charges are for capital investments or recurring expenses. The methodology could also be based on the incremental costs of providing services rather than retail prices We also seek comment on the estimated costs associated with each discount methodology, and how each methodology would comport with the Act's principle of providing "specific, predictable and sufficient Federal and State mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service."[179] Overall, we seek comment and a Joint Board recommendation on how the respective State and Federal discount methodologies can be harmonized to ensure that we fulfill Congress's goal that, throughout the nation, elementary and secondary schools, classrooms and libraries have access to advanced telecommunications services.
b. Terms and Conditions of Interstate Support for Telecommunications Carriers Providing Discounted Universal Services to Schools and Libraries
84. Section 254(h)(1)(B) specifies that schools and libraries are entitled to a discount on telecommunications services only if the requested services will be used "for educational purposes."[180] We invite comment on what steps we should take to ensure that this requirement is met. One possible approach would be to have the school or library provide the carrier with a written certification that the requested services will be used for educational purposes and will not be "sold, resold, or otherwise transferred by such user in consideration for money or any other thing of value."[181] We invite comment and Joint Board recommendation on this proposal. To ensure that schools and libraries have a meaningful opportunity to benefit from the discounts, we propose to require each carrier to inform annually each school and library within its geographic serving area of the available discounts.
85. Under the 1996 Act, each "telecommunications carrier[] serving a geographic area shall, upon bona fide request for any of its services that are within the definition of universal service" provide such service to schools and libraries "for educational purposes."[182] We propose that any person qualified under State or local law to order telecommunications services for schools or libraries be deemed capable of making a "bona fide request" for service. We ask for comment and Joint Board recommendation on how to determine with as much precision as possible whether such a request is "bona fide."
86. The Act instructs that "telecommunications services and network capacity" provided to schools and libraries through universal service support mechanisms "may not be sold, resold, or otherwise transferred by such user in consideration for money or any other thing of value."[183] We ask commenters and the Joint Board to address whether this provision will affect the ability of schools and libraries to receive universal service support if they are sharing a network with parties who are not eligible to receive support and what mechanisms could ensure that this provision does not discourage partnerships between schools and libraries and their communities.
3. Who Is Eligible for Support
87. The term "elementary and secondary schools" is defined for purposes of Section 254 by reference to the definition found in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.[184] The term "elementary school" is defined there to be "a nonprofit institutional day or residential school that provides elementary education, as determined under State law."[185] The term secondary school means "a nonprofit institutional day or residential school that provides secondary education, as determined under State law, except that such term does not include any education beyond grade 12."[186] Consortia of educational institutions providing distance learning to elementary and secondary schools are considered as educational providers eligible for universal service support.[187] Section 254(h)(4) denies eligibility for discounts to any school or library that "operates as a for-profit business." In addition, the discounts are not available to any elementary and secondary school having an "endowment of more than $50,000,000" or library that is "not eligible for participation in State-based" applications for library services and technology funds under Title III of the Library Services and Construction Act.[188] To help ensure that these conditions are met, we propose to require that any certification address these eligibility requirements.
88. Each telecommunications carrier providing discounted service to schools and libraries is permitted either to have "the discount treated as an offset to its obligation to contribute to the mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service" or "receive reimbursement utilizing the support mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service."[189] Unlike all other universal service support, which is to be restricted to "eligible telecommunications carriers" under the terms of Section 214(e) of the Act,[190] the offset or reimbursement provided under Section 254(h)(1)(B), pertaining to schools and libraries, must be given to "all telecommunications carriers serving a geographic area." We ask for comment and Joint Board recommendation on how to implement these provisions. Section 254(h)(1)(B) specifies that all discounts shall apply to "the amounts charged for similar services to other parties."[191] We invite comment and Joint Board recommendation on how we might determine those amounts.
C. Health Care Providers
[Paragraphs 89 - 106 of Section IV have not been included in this excerpt.]
V. Enhancing Access to Advanced Services for Schools, Libraries, and Health Care Providers
A. Goals and Principles
107. Section 254(b)(6) directs the Commission and the Joint Board to adopt policies designed to assure "elementary and secondary schools and classrooms, health care providers, and libraries . . . access to advanced telecommunications services."[218] Section 254(c)(3) enables the Commission to designate additional, special services for universal service support for eligible schools, libraries and health care providers.
108. Section 254(h)(2) directs the Commission to establish "competitively neutral rules. . . to enhance, to the extent technically feasible and economically reasonable, access to advanced telecommunications and information services for all public and nonprofit elementary and secondary school classrooms, health care providers, and libraries."[219] As the Joint Statement explains with respect to advanced services:
New subsection (h)(2) requires the Commission to establish rules to enhance the availability of advanced telecommunications and information services to public institutional telecommunications users. For example, the Commission could determine that telecommunications and information services that constitute universal service for classrooms and libraries shall include dedicated data links and the ability to obtain access to educational materials, research information, statistics, information on Government services, reports developed by Federal, State, and local governments, and information services which can be carried over the Internet.[220]
The Commission is further directed to "define the circumstances under which a telecommunications carrier may be required to connect its network to such public institutional telecommunications users."[221]
B. How to Implement
109. In Section IV, we sought to identify a set of telecommunications services to be supported by Federal universal service support mechanisms for schools, libraries and rural health care providers. We now seek to identify those advanced telecommunications and information services that carriers should make available to all eligible health care providers, libraries and school classrooms to the extent technically feasible and economically reasonable. We ask commenters to identify such services and to identify the features and functionalities required to give eligible health care providers, libraries and school classrooms access to those services. We also ask commenters to suggest competitively neutral rules that we could adopt "to enhance, to the extent technically feasible and economically reasonable, access to advanced telecommunications and information services for all public and nonprofit elementary and secondary school classrooms, health care providers, and libraries." Specifically, we ask whether the "advanced telecommunications and information services" addressed in Section 254(h)(2) should be a broader, narrower, or identical group to those supported under Section 254(h)(1). Further, we request suggestions as to any additional measures, other than discounts and financial support, that would promote deployment of advanced services to school classrooms, libraries and health care providers.
110. For each measure, we ask commenters to address: whether it would be competitively neutral for carriers, telecommunications providers, and any other affected entities, and whether it complies with the Act's requirement that "telecommunications services and network capacity" provided to public institutional telecommunications users "may not be sold, resold, or otherwise transferred by such user in consideration for money or any other thing of value."[222] We seek comment on how we should assess whether particular services that provide access to advanced telecommunications and information services are "technically feasible and economically reasonable."[223]We also ask that the commenters attempt to estimate the potential costs associated with such measures, pursuant to the principle stated in Section 254(b)(5) that support mechanisms should be "specific, predictable and sufficient."[224] Similarly, we request proposals to implement our responsibility, under Section 254(h)(2)(B), "to define the circumstances under which a telecommunications carrier may be required to connect its network to such public institutional telecommunications users."[225] We also refer these issues to the Joint Board for its recommendation.
C. Who Is Eligible for Support
111. For purposes of Section 254(h)(2), schools and libraries have definitions identical to those in Section 254(h)(1), discussed at part V.B.3., above. Congress also intended to benefit "all . . . health care providers," as defined in Section 254(h)(5)(B),[226] not just rural health care providers. We invite interested parties to comment and ask the Joint Board's recommendation regarding this interpretation.
159 Id. [[section]] 254(c)(3). We note that Section 254(h)(4) denies eligibility for discounts to any school or library that "operates as a for-profit business." Id. [[section]] 254(h)(4). In addition, the discounts are not available to any elementary and secondary school having an "endowment of more than $50,000,000" or library that is "not eligible for participation in State-based" applications for library services and technology funds under Title III of the Library Services and Construction Act. Id. [[section]] 254(h)(A). See further discussion infra at part V.B.3.
160 1996 Act [[section]] 254(h)(1).
161 We note that the statutory scheme of Section 254 distinguishes between eligible health care providers generally and rural health care providers. The support mechanisms created by Section 254(h)(1) would extend only to rural health care providers. Section 254(h)(2), which we discuss in part V., embraces all eligible health care providers as defined in Section 254(h)(5)(B) and not just those operating in rural areas.
162 S. Conf. Rep. No. 104-230, 104th Cong., 2d Sess. 132-33 (1996).
163 1996 Act sec. 101(a), [[section]][[section]] 254(h)(1) & 254(C)(3).
164 1996 Act sec. 101(a), [[section]] 254(h)(1)(B).
165 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(1)(A).
166 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(1)(B).
167 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(1)(A).
168 Id.
169 S. Conf. Rep. No. 104-230, 104th Cong., 2d Sess. 133 (1996).
170 National Ctr. for Educ. Statistics, U.S. Dep't of Educ., Advanced Telecommunications in U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary Schools 1995, (Feb. 1996).
171 Id.
172 Id. at 3. In the survey instrument used for the study, public schools were asked which services they now make available to their students, including: (1) computers connected to a local area network; (2) computers with connection or access to a wide area network; and (3) computers connected to the Internet. With respect to Internet access, the survey asked which Internet resources or capabilities a school has access to, including: (1) electronic-mail; (2) news groups; (3) resource locations services; and (4) World Wide Web access. Id. at app. G.
173 1996 Act sec. 101(a), [[section]] 254(b)(6).
174 For example, we note that many of the basic voice grade loops that would be available to schools and libraries at discounted prices as part of the basic package of services would permit them to connect to the Internet at the full 28.8 kilobyte per second (kbps) speed of the current fastest popular computer modems. If schools and libraries find it important to have instantaneous transmissions or to handle multiple connections simultaneously, they are likely to require higher capacity, higher speed links. Schools that desire video links to permit teleconferencing will generally find 1.5 Mbps T1 links quite adequate for the "talking head" lecture style of presentations that most teachers present. Yet others may note that to provide high-quality full-motion video in real time today may require a 45 Mbps DS3 link. Technical Personnel Bellcore and Bell Operating Companies, Telecommunications Transmission Engineering 363 (1990).
175 1996 Act sec. 101(a), [[section]] 254(c)(1).
176 See Section V.B.1., supra.
177 1996 Act sec. 101(a), [[section]] 254(h)(1)(B).
178 Id.
179 Id. [[section]] 254(b)(5).
180 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(1)(B).
181 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(3).
182 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(1)(B).
183 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(3).
184 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(5)(A).
185 20 U.S.C. [[section]] 8801(14).
186 Id. [[section]] 8801(25).
187 S. Conf. Rep. No. 104-230, 104th Cong., 2d Sess. 134 (1996).
188 1996 Act sec. 101(a), [[section]] 254(h)(4); see also 20 U.S.C. [[section]] 353.
189 1996 Act sec. 101(a), [[section]] 254(h)(1)(B).
190 Id. [[section]] 214(e).
191 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(1)(B).
218 Id. [[section]] 254(b)(6).
219 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(2)(A).
220 S. Conf. Rep. No. 104-230, 104th Cong., 2d Sess. 133 (1996).
221 1996 Act sec. 101(a), [[section]] 254(h)(2)(B). "Public institutional telecommunications user" is defined as an elementary or secondary school, a library or health care provider as defined in Section 254 (h)(5)(C). Id. [[section]] 254(h)(5)(C).
222 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(3).
223 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(2)(A).
224 Id. [[section]] 254(b)(5).
225 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(2)(B).
226 Id. [[section]] 254(h)(2)(A). See discussion supra at part V.C.3.