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Ted Cruz’s anti-hotspot costs stalled, however FCC is ending Wi-Fi program by itself.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on May 8, 2025.
Credit: Getty Images|Alex Wong
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is coordinating with Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to obstruct financing for Wi-Fi hotspots for schoolchildren.
Cruz encouraged the Senate to eliminate the FCC’s hotspot program in May. While Cruz’s proposition didn’t make it through your house of Representatives, Carr is now acting to stop the program’s execution.
“Today, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr asked his commission colleagues to vote on two items that would reverse the agency’s unlawful, Biden-era decisions to expand COVID spending programs,” Carr’s statement stated. “Those FCC decisions spent scarce taxpayer dollars on funding unsupervised screen time for kids without accounting for the significant attendant risks.”
Carr collaborated with Cruz ahead of the statement. Journalism release consisted of a declaration from Cruz, in which the senator declared that “the Biden FCC hotspot program endangered kids, duplicated existing federal funding, and violated the law.”
Cruz’s Senate proposition was a resolution of displeasure, which would have prohibited the FCC from embracing a comparable guideline in the future. By contrast, Carr’s action to end the program would not avoid a future FCC chair from restoring it. Cruz still desires your home to vote on the resolution to make sure that the Wi-Fi hotspot program can never ever be restored.
“Kudos to Chairman Carr for moving to undo the Biden hotspot program and protect children, but now it’s time for Congress to step up and codify this change,” Cruz stated in the FCC news release. “In May, the Senate passed my Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution overturning the illegal Biden hotspot rule. I urge the House to act on the resolution and prevent this or similar harmful rules in the future.”
FCC Democrat regrets “ruthlessness and indifference”
The FCC has a 2– 1 Republican bulk led by Carr. The chairman’s workplace stated he asked commissioners to vote on “a declaratory ruling that would overturn the FCC’s 2023 decision to fund unsupervised Wi-Fi use on school buses,” and an order to “reverse the FCC’s 2024 decision to fund Wi-Fi hotspots that kids or library patrons could use outside of schools and libraries.”
If Carr’s proposition is authorized, Universal Service Fund administrators “will be directed to deny pending funding year 2025 requests for E-Rate funding for the off-premises use of Wi-Fi hotspots and Wi-Fi on school buses as these services will be determined to be ineligible,” the FCC statement stated.
Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democrat, will not be choosing Carr’s strategy. “Millions of students and seniors depend on hotspots and school bus Wi-Fi for homework and telehealth services,” Gomez stated in a declaration offered to Ars. “Now the FCC is moving to strip that connectivity away while doing nothing to make broadband more affordable. Their latest proposal will only widen the gap between those with access to modern-day tools and those left behind. We must all fight back against this level of cruelty and indifference by this administration.”
Before Cruz’s proposition was voted on by the Senate, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called it “a cruel and shortsighted decision that will widen the digital divide and rob kids of the tools they need to succeed.”
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior therapist for the Benton Institute for Broadband & & Society, stated that Wi-Fi on school buses is “particularly helpful for students in rural areas that face long, daily commutes.”
“Chairman Carr’s moves today are very unfortunate as they further signal that the Commission is no longer prioritizing closing the digital divide,” Schwartzman stated. “In the 21st Century, education doesn’t stop when a student leaves school and today’s actions could lead to many students having a tougher time completing homework assignments because their families lack Internet access.”
Biden FCC broadened school and library program
Under then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC broadened its E-Rate program in 2024 to let schools and libraries utilize Universal Service moneying to provide out Wi-Fi hotspots and services that might be utilized off-premises. The FCC formerly dispersed Wi-Fi hotspots and other Internet gain access to innovation under pandemic-related costs licensed by Congress in 2021, however that program ended. The brand-new hotspot financing program was expected to start this year.
Carr argues that when the Congressionally authorized program ended, the FCC lost its authority to fund Wi-Fi hotspots for usage beyond schools and libraries. “I dissented from both decisions at the time, and I am now pleased to circulate these two items, which will end the FCC’s illegal funding [of] unsupervised screen time for young kids,” he stated.
Under Rosenworcel, the FCC stated the Communications Act offers it “broad and flexible authority to establish rules governing the equipment and services that will be supported for eligible schools and libraries, as well as to design the specific mechanisms of support.”
The E-Rate program can continue supplying telecom services to schools and libraries in spite of the hotspot part being axed. E-Rate paid out about $1.75 billion in 2024, however might invest more based upon need due to the fact that it has a financing cap of about $5 billion annually. E-Rate and other Universal Service programs are spent for through costs troubled telephone company, which usually pass the expense on to customers.
Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom market, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, high speed customer affairs, lawsuit, and federal government guideline of the tech market.
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