DQE Urges FCC to Delete E-rate 'Catch-22' Provision

Provider DQE Communications on Friday urged the FCC to look closely at whether E-rate services should be subject to the USF contribution factor. DQE filed in docket 25-133, the FCC’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” docket. “In a paradoxical loop that only a bureaucrat would love: The Federal government uses USF funds to provide heavy discounts for E-Rate services, then levies a 36.6% tax against those same schools and libraries, all in the name of funding USF so it can be used in part to provide the subsidies to the schools that have been overcharged,” the provider said. The FCC should “act to eliminate this ridiculous Catch-22 situation by exempting all E-Rate services from the USF levy.”