The Commission granted the appeals of three petitioners that had been denied funding after USAC found that the petitioners had sought E-rate funding for dark fiber for funding years 2004 and 2005 when dark fiber was not an eligible service. For funding years 2004 through 2011, schools were allowed to seek support for services using only lit services. If the school had purchased equipment to light the fiber prior to 2004, the school was permitted to trade the equipment in to the service provider and then lease it back.
In the first appeal, the Commission found that the school district had converted its agreement for dark fiber with its service provider into an agreement for lit fiber, consistent with the requirement that the school could trade in the equipment to the service provider and lease it back. The Commission noted that the modification to the agreement could be considered a permissible minor contract modification to the original contract, because the modification “had no effect or had a negligible effect on price, quantity, quality or delivery under the original contract.”
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