Late yesterday the FCC announced their denial of the SHLB Coalition's petition for reconsideration of the "Transforming the 2.5 GHz Band" Report and Order. Please see below for our statement.
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SHLB Disappointed in FCC Educational Broadband Service Decision
Washington, D.C. (December 18, 2020) - Today the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition expressed disappointment that the Federal Communications Commission rejected the Coalition’s call to award educational institutions an opportunity to acquire Educational Broadband Service (EBS) in rural markets. On Thursday the FCC denied a petition for reconsideration of the “Transforming the 2.5 GHz Band” Report and Order, filed by SHLB and several education advocates.
John Windhausen Jr., executive director of the SHLB Coalition, made the following statement:
“The FCC’s denial of our petition for reconsideration is quite disappointing. For many schools, access to EBS spectrum would have been their golden ticket to quickly deploy networks that reach their students without home internet access. The SHLB Coalition provided many examples of successful wireless deployments by schools working with private sector companies, and we provided detailed economic evidence that awarding schools EBS licenses would promote economic growth and help address the homework gap. It is extremely unfortunate that the Commission did not give schools and other educational organizations this opportunity.”
### About SHLB:
The SHLB Coalition is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) advocacy organization that supports open, affordable, high-quality broadband connections for anchor institutions and their surrounding communities. The SHLB Coalition is based in Washington, D.C. and has a diverse membership of commercial and non-commercial organizations from across the United States. To learn more, visit www.shlb.org.
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