Higher learning via high technology: Schools salivate over telecom services from universal service funds

Everything from basic dial tone service to videoconferencing will be on order as schools prepare to spend a new pot of money on telecommunications services.

The $2.25 billion universal service fund for schools and libraries isn't available until Jan. 1, but the nation's K-12 public and private schools are already planning how to tap this new source of money. School and industry sources say the requests are widely varied.

Rural schools may want basic phone service in classrooms so teachers can call parents and access the Internet, while better-equipped urban districts may seek T-1 lines for distance learning, said Sheldon Green, BellSouth's higher education industry manager. Another likely request is frame relay service that lets schools connect existing local area networks to wide area networks.

Technology in the classroom is nothing new. Schools already spend about $3 billion annually on computers, software and connectivity services, according to a study issued in May by the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, N.J. In addition, 64% of schools have Internet access, though that's true for only 14% of classrooms.

The new money will allow school districts, especially those in poor and rural areas, to buy an array of telecom services at discounts ranging from 20% to 90%. Funding--limited to $1 billion for the first six months--is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Schools can spend the money on commercially available telecom services, Internet access and internal connections. That large menu could mean a spectrum of demand, including networked computers within a school building, pagers for security guards and satellite services for communicating around the world.

Schools can't get discounts for teacher training or for software and hardware such as computers (except network file servers), modems and fax machines.

Initially, most schools will seek discounts on pre-existing services such as local and long-distance phone service, cable connections and Internet access, said Kari Arfstrom, a legislative specialist at the American Association of School Administrators. Two years from now, they may buy wireless phone systems, WANs and other "more experimental" services.

"They want to test the water," Arfstrom said. "People will need to see how it fits into their budget."

Some school districts are lining up their universal service requests now. For example, the Harrisonville Cass R-IX School District, 20 miles south of Kansas City, Mo., is going to "try to be at the front of the line," according to Superintendent Walter Swanson.

The 2300-student district already spends about $1 million per year on technology. As a result, it has nearly completed an impressive system of six workstations and two phones per classroom. It's also adding interactive video connections to each school.

Swanson said he expects a 40% to 50% discount on the purchase of switches, couplers and routers for classroom phones, as well as on T-1 lines to create a WAN connecting the district's schools--something that would have taken several years without the new funds.

Getting a discount isn't automatic. Schools must submit applications along with approved technology plans and budgets. Purchases must be competitively bid over the World Wide Web. State commissions must start their own discount programs for intrastate services that meet or exceed the federal government's rates.

Southwestern Bell has asked the FCC to stay the discount program for schools and libraries. The telco doesn't oppose technology in schools but objects to creation of a "huge" bureaucracy to run the program, said a spokesman for parent company SBC Communications.

TARIFF FILINGS HAVE EXCEPTIONS The FCC last week allowed two exemptions to its rules that eliminated tariff filing requirements for interstate long-distance services that non-dominant carriers provide. The exceptions give carriers the option of filing tariffs for dial-around 1+ services, and for the first 45 days of service to users who change their long-distance carriers by contacting their local carrier.

INTERCONNECTION BATTLE CONTINUES

GTE and several Bell companies have asked the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to clarify its recent ruling that declared much of the FCC's interconnection order unconstitutional. The local carriers are challenging the court's decision that new competitors should be allowed to buy network elements as a single platform from the incumbent service provider.