On April 5, 2023, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) submitted a request to the Federal Communications Commission for a waiver of service delivery deadlines in the Emergency Connectivity Fund program. Citing “the ongoing nature of the COVID-19 emergency and deployment delays experienced by some applicants and their service providers,” the waiver request included examples of applicants who had experienced delays in fully implementing ECF-funded projects due to supply chain delays, labor shortages, and late funding commitments.
Specifically, the groups requested that the FCC “extend the current June 30, 2023 service delivery deadline to June 30, 2024 for those Round 1 and 2 applicants that received a funding commitment decision letter (FCDL) or revised funding commitment decision letter (RFCDL) on or after March 1, 2022.” In addition, an extension was requested to June 30, 2024 for all Round 3 applications.
The SHLB and CoSN waiver request may be viewed here.
