American Rescue Plan - Emergency Connectivity Fund

The Emergency Connectivity Fund is a $7.1 billion funding stream that is a part of the American Rescue Plan. Provided to schools and libraries, the monies can be used for a variety of connectivity solutions and connected devices. The funding was made available through the FCC and followed a similar grant process to the E-Rate program.

From a total of 44,354 funding requests, 14,675 (32.95%) were listed as funded, 29,507 (66.25%) are listed as pending approval, and 354 (0.79%) were listed as cancelled as of October 15, 2021. A total of 30,958 requests (69.5%) were for equipment, with 13,578 (30.48%) for services. Within this, 52% of all equipment requested is laptops, with taxes and reasonable charges the second most requested, making up 15.37% of the total number of equipment requests. For services, almost all of the requests were for internet hotspots. When looking at providers, the most prolific providers of equipment are CDW government LLC, Dell Marketing LP, and Trafera LLC. For services the most prolific providers are T-Mobile USA Inc, Verizon Wireless, and Kajeet, Inc. In a detailed review of the data, all but eight funding requests are already earmarked for a specific provider.