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                            CONCURRING STATEMENT OF

                         COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS

   Re: In the Matter of NEC-Business Network Solutions, Inc., File No.
   EB-03-IH-0738

   No program may be doing more to close the digital divide for rural
   Americans and the economically disadvantaged than the E-Rate program.
   Indeed, there are many hard-working people in the Schools and Libraries
   Division, at the FCC and Justice Department, and elsewhere, who are to be
   commended for successfully bringing the Internet to our schools and
   libraries and for ensuring that waste, fraud and abuse are ferreted out.
   NEC-Business Network Solutions, Inc.'s (NEC) convictions and its six month
   debarment from the program is evidence of the joint effort underway to
   eliminate any wrongdoing from the E-Rate program. I therefore concur in
   today's Order.

   However, as a general matter, I believe that a six month debarment period
   is often times little more than a slap on the wrist for companies engaged
   in efforts to defraud the E-Rate program of millions of dollars and, in
   the end, our children of the tools they need in the Digital Age. There
   were mitigating circumstances in this case, and the companion case of
   Inter-Tel Technologies, Inc., that support a shorter debarment period.
   However, a stronger penalty may have been warranted given the importance
   of the E-Rate program and the severity of NEC's actions.

   Federal Communications Commission FCC 06-91