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Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Now it's getting ugly

A spate of recent appeals to the FCC (here's one of them) really takes USAC to task for the whole Cost-Effectiveness Review (CER) process. Sounds like a case similar to one I blogged about earlier: wielding the most secretive of reviews to deny FRNs from years ago.

By now you know I hate the CER (and here's another rant).

In November 2007, the State E-Rate Coordinator's Association (SECA) said: "USAC’s cost-effectiveness procedures appear to go well beyond FCC rules and policy guidance."

In April 2008, the E-Rate Service Provider's Association (ESPA) calls it "arbitrary, discriminatory, unfair, and not competitively neutral."

In April 2008, E-Rate Central said: "USAC is making policy decisions unsupported by Commission rules. Even worse, USAC is making educational policy decisions."

This latest set of appeals go all out, even getting into the personal politics of some USAC employee involved in the case.

The CER appeals are piling up.

So when will we see some FCC action on this? Another end-of-the-fiscal-year batch of appeals have been released, and not a peep about Cost-Effectiveness Reviews. Let's hope we don't have to wait five years.

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