The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has received requests for nearly $1.3 billion in the second application filing window of the $7.17 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund Program to fund nearly 2.4 million connected devices and over 564,000 broadband connections.
The Commission also committed an additional $269 million to fund connected devices and broadband connections requested in the first application filing window.
FCC offered the second application filing window — from September 28 to October 13 — to accommodate strong demand for the program in the first round. The funding can be used to support off-campus leaning, such as homework and virtual learning, as schools and libraries continue to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said: “Emergency Connectivity Fund is the single largest effort to bring connectivity and devices to students, helping to close the Homework Gap and providing critical services to library patrons. Together with the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, the Commission is investing more than $10 billion to support success in the digital age.”
The Commission to date has committed $2,632,195,122.16 in program funding to school and library applicants. With the first three waves, the FCC is providing support for over 6.1 million connected devices and nearly 2.9 million broadband connections to support 6,028 schools, 512 libraries, and 49 consortia.
