Meet your E-Rate needs with Axiom
Maximizing educational resources is essential to building a brighter future for the next generation. Axiom offers full support for the E-Rate program and is excited to share more information about this initiative to help your school or library optimize spending on educational resources.
What is E-Rate?
Established in 1996 by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), E-Rate is a program that subsidizes the costs of telecommunications and network connectivity equipment for school districts and libraries nationwide. The funding cap for the 2021 E-Rate campaign was set at $4.46 billion dollars.
To apply for E-Rate benefits, eligible schools and libraries are required to put together a list of goods/equipment/services needed and then submit their lists to the USAC (Universal Service Administrative Company) for approval. The USAC will provide a list of vendors of which schools or libraries can select from to work with. After the goods and services are delivered to the eligible recipients, USAC will then reimburse the costs of goods and services for the E-rate participants.
How does E-Rate help promote a better educational environment?
Education nowadays blends technology with traditional teaching mediums more than ever before. As research shows, around 57% of K-12 students in the United States utilize some form of digital learning tool on a daily basis. With data-heavy applications well integrated in modern teaching, be it interactive learning, educational videos, video conferencing and more, network connectivity requirements for education will continue to scale exponentially.
Many school and library districts, however, lack adequate funding to build proper network infrastructures on par with the rest of the nation. As studies have shown, 33% of school districts in the United States still do not meet the threshold of 1 Mbps connectivity per student. Furthermore, districts that do not meet the FCC goal are paying more per price of gigabit.
E-Rate presents an opportunity to address this lack of funding. E-Rate ensures that eligible participants can purchase essential equipment at discounts of anywhere from 20% to 90% depending on the level of support needed. To date, E-Rate has provided more than $36 billion dollars in discounts and more than 90% of US public libraries have used E-Rate. With E-Rate, educators are able to build learning environments that are more conducive to high-quality education.
How can Axiom help with your E-Rate needs?
E-Rate supports two different categories. Category one services involve building out external network connections, enabling schools and libraries to access external resources more efficiently. Category two services involve building internal networks so that students and teachers as well as library administrators can share information in real-time more efficiently and improve collaboration between all participants within the organization.
E-Rate requires schools or libraries to select the most cost-effective eligible products and services, then apply to USAC for approval with cost as the primary factor.
For over 25 years, Axiom has delivered OEM equivalent performance at a fraction of the OEM costs. We offer a full portfolio of solutions that address both category one and category two E-Rate demands. Axiom's diverse selection of cables are an excellent fit for any network. Axiom can work with ISPs to build out category one services. Axiom's complete lineup of low-insertion loss patch cables includes:
BENDnFLEX™ cables- supports OM4 performance on bend insensitive multi-mode fiber
DAC and AOC cables- simplifies network management with ultra-low latency
Fiber cables- supports broadband performance in duplex, single-mode, or multi-mode
Copper cables- keeps legacy networks connected and running at all times
Axiom's full lineup of network transceivers addresses the growing connectivity demands of today’s networks. Fully customizable, Axiom transceivers are a great fit for building high-bandwidth data centers. Axiom transceivers support the following specifications and more:
1Gb to 400Gb data rates- wide range of data rates for any network needed
Single-mode/multi-mode- propagation of single/multiple simultaneous light modes
SFP/QSFP/XFP form factors- compact, hot-pluggable form factors which fit in any configuration
SR/LR/LRM/ER/ZR- support for a wide range of reaches from short reach to extended reach and more
CWDM/DWDM- utilizing multiple wavelengths of light to transfer data for higher network bandwidth
Partner with Axiom today to build out network infrastructures and save a great deal of money for your school or library. Level the playing field to ensure that the next generation has all the tools to be successful in the classroom.
Learn more about E-Rate and Axiom:
To learn more about E-Rate, visit
https://www.usac.org/e-rate/
For more information about Axiom's full lineup of E-Rate-compatible products, visit:
https://www.axiomupgrades.com
For more information about our highly customizable and application-specific optics, visit:
https://axiomconnectivity.com/
Sources
2. https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/et/ft/cattwoservices.asp
3. https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/universal-service-program-schools-and-libraries-e-rate
6. https://www.imls.gov/blog/2014/04/new-data-more-90-us-public-libraries-have-used-e-rate