On May 20, 2025, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) will fully fund all eligible Category One and Category Two E-rate requests for the funding year 2025.
On March 27, 2025, USAC submitted a demand estimate for the E-rate program for the upcoming funding year, projecting a total demand of $3.225 billion. This includes $1.806 billion for Category One services, which cover Internet access, and $1.418 billion for Category Two services, which include internal connections, basic maintenance of internal connections, and managed internal broadband services.
The Wireline Competition Bureau has set the E-rate program’s inflation-based cap for funding year 2025 at $5.059 billion. Additionally, USAC has projected that $500 million in unused funds from prior funding years will be available for use in 2025. This brings the total available funding to $5.559 billion, which is more than sufficient to cover the estimated demand.
The full FCC announcement can be viewed here.
