Library Technology Guides

The FCC is not scheduled to vote on a recommendation to provide heavily-discounted Internet connections to schools and public libraries until May 1997; but Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell, and US West are already lobbying the Commission and Congress not to fund the program solely from contributions by telecommunications carriers. Rather than expanding the existing universal-service fund to which telecommunications carriers already contribute some $2.25 billion a year, the Baby Bells want computer manufacturers, software developers, and Internet service providers to make contributions as well. Presumably this will lead to counter-lobbying by these groups. If the lobbying is intense enough, a decision by the FCC may be delayed.