The Quilt recently sent a delegation to Washington, DC to discuss issues in our community with key organizations, USAC chief among them. USAC’s unwillingness to work with R&Es under e-Rate is well known.

Chris Henderson, USAC’s relatively new CEO has clearly indicated a desire for USAC to become a “facilitator and not a regulator” in the process. The group discussed many common problems R&E’s have had working with USAC and it’s clear that the key will be getting to higher levels in the organization when problems arise.

Chris also indicated that internal performance metrics within USAC will change to incentivize successful consortium applications.