Thank you to every Mobile Beacon customer who stood up to #SaveEBS. The hundreds of comments submitted to the FCC, calls, and emails into their legislative offices, and signed our petition helped to shine a light on the incredible work our customers are doing every day to close the digital divide and homework gap in their communities.

As a valued customer using Mobile Beacon’s unlimited broadband to deliver programs, balance your budget and support your mission, we need your help.  On May 10, 2018, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to begin a new rulemaking to reform Educational Broadband Service (EBS), the only spectrum band currently reserved for educational purposes.

The FCC is proposing to eliminate the educational use requirements for EBS and remove the requirement that this spectrum be controlled by educational and nonprofit entities. This means the only remaining spectrum allocated for educational purposes has the potential to be auctioned off to large telecommunications carriers who have left millions of Americans trapped in the digital divide.  If these proposed changes are adopted by the FCC, this would remove the educational core of this public resource at a time when broadband access for education remains critical.

How Does This Impact You?

NACEPF, the parent company of Mobile Beacon, is the second-largest Educational Broadband Service licensee in the United States. NACEPF created Mobile Beacon to be the service entity that would make its EBS service available to schools, libraries, nonprofits, and other community anchor institutions. In fact, you rely on Mobile Beacon’s $10/month, unlimited, EBS internet service every day.

What’s at stake is the gradual reduction or elimination of EBS programs that are currently being used to close the homework gap, provide connectivity to low-income individuals and families, and help nonprofits of every kind better serve their communities.