The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it will commit another $86 million in the tenth wave funding to its Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) program.
The latest funding round will support over 240,000 students and provide funding for over 350 schools, 29 libraries, and eight consortia, which are approved to receive over 239,000 connected devices and over 96,000 broadband connections.
“The Emergency Connectivity Fund is the single biggest effort to close the Homework Gap, and connect students and libraries with reliable broadband service,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a press release.
“The need for help is clear, and we’re making progress,” she said. “Since the program opened last June, thousands of schools and libraries signed up, and we are now providing funding for over 10 million connected devices and over 5 million broadband connections throughout the country,” Rosenworcel said.
ECF is a $7.17 billion program to help schools and libraries provide the tools and services their communities need for remote learning during the COVID-19 emergency period. Since its launch, the program has committed over $4.62 billion, supporting all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the District of Columbia. ECF has provided funding for more than 11,000 schools, 900 libraries, and 130 consortia for over 10 million connected devices and over 5 million broadband connections.
This tenth wave of funding includes over $30 million in commitments from Window 1 applications and nearly $56 million in commitments from Window 2 applications. Overall, the largest funding was given to:
- Texas
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- California
- New Jersey
