Spade

Gina Spade founded the boutique telecommunications law firm Broadband Legal Strategies, LLC in 2015 to ensure E-rate and Rural Health Care applicants obtain the program funding that they deserve.

She advises companies, state networks, schools, libraries, and trade associations on program compliance and regulatory issues, represents program participants in rulemakings, and has helped her clients win numerous appeals of funding denials at the Universal Service Administrative Company and the Federal Communications Commission.

During her 13 years at the FCC, Spade spent more than a decade working on universal service programs, including managing both the E-rate and the Rural Health Care programs. Her major accomplishments while overseeing the E-rate program include releasing the 2010 Sixth Report and Order and managing the resolution of more than a thousand appeals, which included major decisions such as the Bishop Perry order. She also served as an advisor on the National Broadband Plan.

Prior to joining the FCC, Spade worked on telecommunications issues Hogan and Hartson (now Hogan Lovells) and Mintz Levin.

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Selected Presentations

Speaker, “E-rate Compliance,” The 2020 INCOMPAS Policy Summit, Washington, D.C., March 2020.

Speaker, Unfinished Business in the RHC Program, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar, January 2020.

Panelist, E-rate Workshop: A Survivor’s Guide to Special Construction for Rural Anchor Institutions, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., October 2019.

“E-rate Hot Topics,” E-rate Management Professionals Association, Washington, D.C., September 2019.

Speaker, Grow2Gig+ Potential Pitfalls for E-rate Applicants, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar, January 2019.

Moderator, E-rate Workshop Part 2, Schools, Health & Libraries Coalition Building the Future Bit x Bit Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., October 2018

“E-rate Hot Topics,” E-rate Management Professionals Association, Washington, D.C., October 2018.

“E-rate Hot Topics,” E-rate Management Professionals Association, Washington, D.C., October 2017.

“I Know It When I See It: Cost-effectiveness in the E-rate Program,” E-rate Management Professionals Association, Washington, D.C., October 2016.

“The FCC’s Open Internet Order: Preserving a Free and Open Internet,” Washburn University School of Law, February 2012.

“The Annual Recap and What’s Next for E-rate,” Universal Service Administrative Company training workshops, October 2011, October 2010, October 2009, October 2008.

“The Future of E-rate,” Council of Great City Schools, Denver, Colo., June 2010.

“The FCC and Regulating the Internet,” American Chilean Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), Santiago, Chile, March 2004.