The draft ESL for 2026-2027 is out. The big change, of course, is the disappearance of school bus WiFi and WiFi hotspot lending. But there is an apparently subtle but actually significant change.
The Commission is proposing "to treat all currently eligible software- or remote-based services, including bug fixes, security patches, software-based technical assistance, and configuration changes...." like they currently treat licenses: allow applicants to purchase multi-year contracts as internal connections.
Why is that a big deal? SMARTnet. OK, most manufacturers' service contracts will be affected, but Cisco's SMARTnet is what jumped to mind. What typically happens now: a district signs a three-year contract covering their Cisco gear, then cost-allocates out the ineligible hardware replacement portion of the service, then divides the remainder by three and applies for one year of the eligible portion of the service. And that's in the ideal case where the contract starts on July 1st. Lots of contracts don't, so now you have to create two FRNs, each covering part of the year. And since you have to pay the whole amount of the three-year contract, you can't SPI years two and three; the district has to pay the full amount now and wait two years to get their reimbursement.
But now, applicants will just put in the whole eligible amount in the first year. What a relief.
It's also a good change because the line between licenses and service contracts was always pretty blurry. If you have to buy it in order for the access point to work, it's a license, right? But if you also get software updates and phone support with it, is it still just a license? Every year, I feared that USAC might force us to cost-allocate out any maintenance services from licenses.
It's a small change, but it makes the application process easier for applicants, so I say, "Bravo!"
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