By late 2013, much of the hope and enthusiasm associated with the FCC’s E-rate program was gone. Despite rising connectivity costs, funding had remained consistent. This meant that the vast majority of schools could never hope to upgrade their gear, leaving them left behind in the “digital divide.”
Yet, in 2015, we saw a rebirth of E-rate. The biggest surprise was the sharp increase in spending in the education market to ramp up to the release of Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs). Long before award letters went out, America’s schools began to increase their investment. For Comstor and Westcon, that has translated into a 40 percent year-over-year spike.
As our partners become more invested in our public sector program, E-rate leads are bringing new opportunities and new ways of discovering business.
E-rate 2016: Category One Continues to Fade
As we move on to E-rate funding year 2016, I think the impact of the revised program is finally going to be felt. With more than $3 billion poised to go to hardware infrastructure purchases, the opportunity is unprecedented. During the funding year 2015, less than one-in-five eligible schools applied for funding, so we are hoping to see in increase in these requests.
Another important thing to remember for E-rate 2016 is the ongoing reduction in Category One
“dial tone” funding. The maximum discount for voice services this year will be 50 percent.
This amount will be reduced an additional 20 percent next year and the year after as well,
until the Category One discount is eliminated in F2018.
Also, we have watched the education sector become a leader in the migration to the cloud, as more and more schools convert to cloud solutions for voice, which is eligible under E-rate. During our recent E-rate Annual training session (link here) we heard from Westcon’s Frank Jacobs about this move.
