Welcome to Viadesto's E-rate page!
E-rate
In 1996, Congress engaged telecommunications providers for the purposes of making their services available to our nations' schools and libraries at a discounted rate. This E-rate, or Education Rate, ensures that students and communities across the country recieve the benefits of technologies like Viadesto. We are proud to offer E-rated services to educational institutions.
While the E-rate program has served to fulfill the promise of technology in K-12 education, the process of filing for discounts can sometimes be daunting. That's why Viadesto has invested its time and expertise to help you through this process. The following information is provided by Viadesto to help schools and districts take advantage of E-rate funding to improve communication, collaboration, accountability and performance in their school or district. If you would like further information, please contact us directly and an Viadesto E-rate expert will be happy to help.
E-RATE HISTORY
In 1934, Congress established a policy that "a rapid, efficient, nation-wide, and worldwide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges" would be "available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States." In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress expanded this principle to specifically include an obligation on telecommunications providers to make available discounted services to the nation's schools and libraries. This initiative became known as the E-rate program (or Education Rate) which is currently administered by the Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC).
E-RATE ELIGIBILITY
The following entities are eligible for E-rate discounts: elementary and secondary public schools, non-profit elementary and secondary parochial and private schools (with endowments under $50 million), public libraries, and many private non-profit libraries accessible to the public.
The following matrix shows how schools and libraries can benefit from the E-rate program:
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INCOME
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URBAN LOCATION
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RURAL LOCATION
|
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Measured by % of students eligible for the National School Lunch Program
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Discount
|
Discount
|
|
If the % of students in a school that qualifies for the National School Lunch Program is...
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... and the school is located in an URBAN area, the discount will be...
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... and the school is located in a RURAL area, the discount will be...
|
|
Less than 1%
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20%
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25%
|
|
1% to 19%
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40%
|
50%
|
|
20% to 34%
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50%
|
60%
|
|
35% to 49%
|
60%
|
70%
|
|
50% to 74%
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80%
|
80%
|
|
75% to 100%
|
90%
|
90%
|
Viadesto'S E-RATE ELIGIBILITY
All eligible products and services under the E-rate program fall into one of three categories: Telecommunications, Internet Access, and Internal Connections. Both the Telecommunications and Internet Access categories are considered Priority One services and are fully funded every year. Since Viadesto offers "Email" and "Web Hosting" services, it qualifies for discounts under the Priority One "Internet Access" category. Because Viadesto also includes components that are not considered eligible under the E-rate program, 95% of its service qualifies for discounts.
