ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 7, Number 153 December 11, 1998 In this issue: [1] Action Needed: Encourage E-rate Supporters to Thank BellSouth for Withdrawing from Universal Service Fund Lawsuit [2] State-by-State Wave 1 Reports Available on SLC Web Site [3] Correction on Technology Literacy Challenge Fund Grants -- State Formula Grants [1] Action Needed: Encourage E-rate Supporters to Thank BellSouth for Withdrawing from Universal Service Fund Lawsuit On December 2 BellSouth, the southeastern U.S. regional Bell operating company, withdrew from a critical lawsuit challenging the Federal Communications Commission's Order on Universal Service. The lawsuit is a major threat to the E-rate, the telecommunications discounts for K-12 schools and libraries. "Library applicants across the country, especially in the BellSouth service area, appreciate the company's sound decision to withdraw from this lawsuit," said Carol C. Henderson, ALA Washington Office executive director. "The E-rate is an important policy to assure that all American's are connected to the Information Superhighway. Let us now work together to assure that this is a win-win for libraries, for communities and for businesses." ALA encourages all E-rate supporters, especially those in the BellSouth service area (including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee) to thank them for demonstrating their support for education and libraries by withdrawing from the appeal. Many library advocates and E-rate supporters originally criticized BellSouth for their participation in the lawsuit (see ALAWON v6, n74, August 21, 1997; http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon/alwn674.html). BellSouth should now be thanked for recognizing that this lawsuit was a major threat to the E-rate. E-rate supporters are asked to write BellSouth at: F. Duane Ackerman President and CEO BellSouth 1155 Peachtree Street, NE Atlanta, GA 30309-3610 and David J. Markey Vice President, Governmental Affairs BellSouth 1133 21st St., N.W. Suite 900 Washington, D.C. 20006 SBC, Inc., GTE, and others are still suing the FCC in the case before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. On December 1 Matthew Ames, the attorney for the EdLiNC coalition (of which ALA is a member), participated in oral arguments during a proceeding in the appeals process. There is no definite deadline for a decision in this case, although some observers predict there could be a court decision on the appeal in late spring 1999. [2] State-by-State Wave 1 Reports Available on SLC Web Site On December 7 the Schools and Libraries Corporation posted three new documents on its Web site (http://www.slcfund.org): (1) Q & A for Service Providers on Funding Commitment Decisions Letters, (2) List of SPINs in First Wave, and (3) Wave 1 Recipients of E-rate Discounts - by State. At the end of the "Wave 1 Recipients of E-rate Discounts - by State" (http://www.slcfund.org/Reference/fndcommit.asp) document are links to the recipients of E-rate funding commitment letters in each state. The State Reports, in PDF format, contain the applicant name, address, dollar amount awarded, discount percentage awarded, and up to four types of service descriptions for telecommunications services, Internet Access, internal connections, and site-specific telecommunications services and/or site-specific Internet access. [3] Correction on Technology Literacy Challenge Fund Grants -- State Formula Grants The December 7, 1998 ALAWON, (v7, n151) incorrectly reported the amount available for Technology Literacy Challenge Fund Grants -- State Formula Grants. The amount available for the program in FY99 is $425 million. According to the program officer at the Department of Education, information in the Federal Register (November 3, 1998, v63, n212, pp. 59435-59455) about state educational agencies submitting educational technology plans by a deadline in March 1999 was also incorrect. State educational agencies who submitted their plans the first year of the program are not required to re-submit their plans this year. There will be another notice published in the Federal Register, but the we wanted to notify the readers of ALAWON as soon as possible. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Editor: Lynne E. Bradley; Managing Editor: Deirdre Herman; Contributors: Mary Costabile, Adam Eisgrau, Anne Heanue, Carol Henderson, Peter Kaplan, Claudette Tennant and Rick Weingarten.