What the FCC's E-rate review could change
Consultant registration, a ban on percentage fees, and an open question about the program's future.
On June 25, 2026, the FCC adopted a wide review of E-rate, FCC 26-41, published in the Federal Register on August 14. Comments closed October 13 and reply comments closed November 12, 2026. No decision date has been set.
Proposals on consultants
- A formal definition of a consultant as any non-employee who helps a school or library with any aspect of the program, whether or not for a fee.
- A registration database and an annual certification and disclosure form for consultants.
- A prohibition on certain fees based on a percentage of funding or contract value.
The bigger question
The notice asks whether E-rate should be limited, for example to rural areas, or ended, and whether the FCC has the authority to do so. That is a question, not a proposal, and supporters argue only Congress can end the program. In June 2025 the Supreme Court upheld the Universal Service Fund itself in FCC v. Consumers' Research.
Already decided
- From funding year 2028, vendors must submit bids through a USAC portal, and applicants must upload bid evaluations and contracts there.
- In September 2025, the FCC removed school bus Wi-Fi and lendable hotspots from eligibility. In 2025 funding data, all 1,440 such requests received nothing.
What to do now
Nothing in the review changes this filing season. Keep filing on the current rules, watch docket 26-133, and if you pay a consultant a percentage of your funding, expect that arrangement to come under pressure.
Any school, district or library: what was approved, paid, left unspent and still unclaimed.