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E-Rate News Brief
July 20, 2023
E-RATE TIPS:
• The FCC Form 470 for Funding Year (FY) 2024 is now available in the E-Rate Productivity Center (EPC). Applicants with long procurement cycles or applicants that have other reasons for starting their FY2024 competitive bidding processes well in advance of the funding year, can now complete and certify this form. See the June 2023 E-Rate News Brief for FCC Form 470 and competitive bidding resources.
• The Beginning E-Rate Services Webinar was held June 27. This session gives applicants and service providers a high-level overview of the next steps in the E-Rate process, after equipment and services are funded. View the recording. View the webinar slides.
• Filing the FCC Form 470 and the Competitive Bidding Process Webinar July 27. USAC will hold a FCC Form 470/Competitive Bidding webinar on July 27 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. This webinar will provide E-Rate participants with information on how to file the FCC Form 470 and about the E-Rate competitive bidding process. This webinar is for applicants and service providers of all levels of E-Rate experience, with emphasis towards beginner level participants. Register.
Contents
Commitments for Funding Year (FY) 2023 and FY2022
FY2023. USAC released FY2023 Wave 12 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on July 13. As of July 19, FY2023 commitments total over $1.62 billion.
FY2022. USAC released FY2022 Wave 58 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on July 19. As of July 19, FY2022 commitments total over $2.83 billion.
On the date that FCDLs are issued, you can access your FCDL notification from the Notifications section of your landing page in EPC.
Service Provider Reminder: File Your FY2023 SPAC Form
The FCC Form 473, or Service Provider Annual Certification (SPAC) Form, must be filed each year by service providers that participate in the E-Rate program. This form must be certified and on file with USAC for each funding year before USAC can pay any invoices – the FCC Form 472, Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement (BEAR) Form or the FCC Form 474, Service Provider Invoice (SPI) Form – for that funding year.
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Service providers that have more than one Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN) must file a SPAC Form for each SPIN.
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Applicants can only include Funding Request Numbers (FRNs) for one funding year on a single BEAR Form but service providers can include FRNs from multiple funding years on a single SPI Form.
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It is never too late to file a SPAC Form. If USAC issues an FCDL for an earlier funding year for which a SPAC Form is missing, the service provider can file a SPAC Form for that funding year now.
How to File Your SPAC Form
USAC has added FY2023 as an option to the online SPAC Form. To complete and certify your SPAC Form, log in to the E-File System.
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If you have multiple SPINs, you must choose one of them ("set your SPIN") from the list of your SPINs.
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After you set your SPIN, you will see SPAC Form as an option in the left-hand menu.
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The form will pre-populate much of the information required based on your identity as a user.
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If you notice that the contact information in your E-File System profile (not your EPC profile) does not populate correctly, you can exit the FCC Form 473, correct your E-File profile information, and then re-enter your form. If you need help with correcting your E-File profile, contact us as described below.
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The dropdown in the form that lists funding years will only show funding years for which a SPAC Form has not yet been filed, making your choice(s) easier.
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Immediately after the SPAC Form is certified for any funding year – including FY2023 – the appropriate funding year will appear in the Service Provider Download Tool.
Refer to the FCC Form 473 User Guide for step-by-step instructions for filing the FCC Form 473.
Before you start invoicing for FY2023 services, check to make sure that the service provider has certified an FCC Form 473 (SPAC Form) and the applicant has certified an FCC Form 486. The E-Rate FRN Status Tool FY2016+ shows the status of the SPAC Form and service start dates for certified and approved FCC Forms 486.
To verify that a certified SPAC Form has been filed by your service provider, filter by SPIN and select FY2023 as the funding year. When the data updates, look in the SPAC Filed? column to see if the SPAC Form has been certified.
FY2024 FCC Form 470 Reminders
The FY2024 FCC Form 470 (Description of Services Requested and Certification Form), which opens the required competitive bidding process, became available in EPC on July 1. Here are a few reminders about the FCC Form 470 if you are ready to open your competitive bidding process for FY2024, which covers services received from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.
You must file the FCC Form 470 in EPC.
To start an FCC Form 470, you must have a One Portal username and password to access EPC. Your EPC account administrator can set up an EPC user account for you if you do not already have one, and our system will then create a One Portal account for you. After your accounts are set up, you can log in to One Portal, choose EPC from your dashboard, and click the FCC Form 470 link at the top of your EPC landing page to start an FCC Form 470.
Your organization's profile must be established in EPC before you can file a program form, including an FCC Form 470.
If you are new to the E-Rate program and looking to establish your entity, go to the School and Library Eligibility page or the E-Rate Checklist for Tribal Libraries page to learn how to establish your entity. Your billed entity information (including address, contact information, and attributes for the schools in a school district or libraries in a library system) is pulled into program forms from your organization's profile in EPC.
You do not need to update your student counts (schools) or square footage (libraries) before filing the FCC Form 470. However, the system will count the number of recipients of service based on your current organization profile in EPC. If you cannot update your organization's profile information in EPC to reflect added or removed individual schools, library branches, or consortium members, you can provide updated information in the narrative fields in your FCC Form 470 and in the document(s) you attach to your form (see below).
If you issue a request for proposal (RFP) and/or RFP documents, you must upload these documents to your FCC Form 470.
If you are issuing an RFP and/or one or more RFP documents, you are required to upload those documents to your FCC Form 470. We use "RFP" and "RFP document" generically to refer to any bidding document that describes your project and requested services in more detail than that provided on the FCC Form 470.
An RFP document can be a formal bidding document – for example, an invitation for bid (IFB) or request for quote (RFQ) – or it could be any document issued as part of your competitive bidding process to provide more information to potential bidders. The actual RFP itself (along with all subsequent addenda) must be made publicly available through USAC's website by uploading the RFP to your FCC Form 470 in EPC.
In addition, if you issue RFP documents AFTER you certify an FCC Form 470, you MUST upload them to that certified FCC Form 470. Note that if you did not add an RFP document to your original form before it was certified, you cannot add an RFP document later. Instead, you must attach the document to a new FCC Form 470 and then certify that form.
Certify the form online in EPC.
The FCC Form 470 is posted to tools on the USAC website after it has been certified in EPC (see below).
If the user who creates the form does not have the necessary rights (permissions) to certify it, EPC will create a task for users within the organization who do.
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Users with partial rights to the FCC Form 470 can complete the form but cannot certify the form.
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Users with full rights to the FCC Form 470 can complete, edit, and certify the form in EPC.
Your receipt notification will appear in your EPC News feed after you certify your form.
Your FCC Form 470 Receipt Notification Letter (RNL) that confirms your certification will appear in the News tab in your EPC account shortly after you certify your form. You can submit requests to correct certain errors through EPC by clicking Related Actions at the top of the form.
You can also access your RNL by navigating to your FCC Form 470 in EPC and clicking the News option from the menu near the top of the page (NOT the blue News tab). In this way, you will only see news items that apply to this form.
Service providers can view filed FCC Forms 470 either through EPC or on the USAC website.
EPC has a search and download function that will allow service providers with accounts in EPC to search for certified FCC Forms 470. You can download the form data from the search results as a set of CSV (comma separated value) files.
Service providers can also view a PDF version of a single form along with all of its attached RFP documents in the View an FCC Form 470 tool, and detailed information for multiple forms in the Download FCC Form 470 Information tool. You can find both tools on the E-Rate Tools page on the USAC website.
The June 2023 E-Rate News Brief provides links to resources to help you submit and certify an FCC Form 470.
Applicants: Review Your EPC Invoice Permissions
Applicants that will invoice E-Rate via the BEAR form (FCC Form 472) in EPC will need to ensure that their users have the appropriate permissions to view, prepare, submit, and certify the forms. Note that currently BEAR submissions are made in the E-Rate Legacy Invoicing System. Go to the BEAR Form Access page if you need this access.
Manage User Permissions
The Account Administrator can manage its entity’s users and any consultant users from the Manage User Permissions screen. To begin:
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Log into EPC.
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On the My Applicant Landing Page, click the Manage Users link.
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Select the organization by clicking the appropriate checkbox and then click Manage User Permissions.
You will arrive at the Manage User Permissions page where you can see all the permissions that are available. To grant a user BEAR Form permissions, the Account Administrator can assign rights under the BEAR/472 Permission column in the grid, as follows:
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Full Rights (can create, edit, and certify forms),
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Partial Rights (can create and edit forms), or
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View Only Rights (can see, but not create or edit forms)
When the permission level is selected, click Submit.
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