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Welcome to E-Rate FY2025

 

The E-Rate Program funds networking equipment and infrastructure within a school or library building. Connectivity - and the ability for schools to provide digital learning - has never been more critical. Our sales team is deeply knowledgeable in E-Rate funding and can support you with your application. We do site surveys, needs assessments and budgetary pricing to optimize E-Rate coverage for your school technology plan.

DES has supported K-12 with E-Rate design and implementation since 1996. We partner with many leading brands to build network solutions that are covered through E-Rate’s Category 2 funding, including, Alcatel-Lucent, Aruba HPE, Fortinet and many more.

E-Rate Services

What You Need To Know:

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The Schools and Libraries Program, commonly known as E-rate, provides discounts for telecommunications, internet access and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries. E-rate is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) under the direction of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

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Every five years, E-Rate allocates a new funding cycle that covers the full five years. Each year during that cycle, schools can apply for purchases against their 5-year budget. The filing window for FY2021 opens up current 5-year budget.  Schools can make use of any part of their E-Rate allocation for FY2021-2026.

 

FY2025 Filing Window: December 1, 2024 through April 1, 2025.

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DES E-rate SPIN/498 ID: 143004490

What is Covered:

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DES can provide all equipment and services on the Category 2 listings, including:

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  • Wireless Access Points/Wireless Controllers

  • Routers

  • Switches

  • Antennas (must be integral to the LAN/WAN)

  • Firewall Equipment

  • Internal Structured Cabling for switches and APs.  

  • Caching Servers – (these are the only eligible servers)

  • Racks that house eligible equipment

  • UPS that support eligible equipment

  • Cloud-based functionality of eligible equipment

  • Licenses for eligible equipment (can apply for multi-year license in Year 1 of your contract)

  • Software that supports eligible equipment

  • Limited basic maintenance services for eligible equipment

  • Managed Internal Broadband Services (MIBS) – (see more below)

  • Taxes, surcharges and other similar reasonable charges

  • Shipping charges

  • Training on how to use eligible equipment

  • Installation and configuration (not required to be the equipment vendor)

Consult

What DES Can Do For You:

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We do site surveys, needs assessments and budgetary pricing to optimize E-Rate coverage for your school technology plan. In addition, we offer maintenance and support packages to protect your E-Rate solutions.

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As a solution integrator, we partner with many leading brands to build network solutions that are covered through E-Rate’s Category 2 funding:

  • Alcatel-Lucent

  • Aruba HPE  

  • Fortinet 

  • Juniper Networks

  • And many more

LINKS
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Solutions from our Toolkit

Right-Sized Wireless for Any School

WI-FI ACCESS POINTS AND NETWORK DESIGN
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In today’s school environment, reliable wireless access is a critical component to curriculum design. We assess the school campus design and evaluate all contributing factors – such as the composition of classroom walls – to create a network plan that maximizes connectivity while remaining in budget. With the growing proliferation of endpoint devices, we ensure that the Wi-Fi network can scale to support your campus requirements.

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Not all switches are created equal. We work with multiple vendors and understand when a multi-gig switch is appropriate or when a PoE++ switch has greater value. Our sales engineers work with you to design network solutions that are effective and sustainable

TOOLKIT
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