Commitments for Funding Year (FY) 2024
FY2024. USAC released FY2024 Wave 13 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on July 18. As of July 24, FY2024 commitments total over $1.73 billion.
On the date that FCDLs are issued, you can access your FCDL notification from the Notifications section of your landing page in the E-Rate Productivity Center (EPC).
You can use the E-Rate Search Commitments Tool to look up prior-year commitment data.
FY2025 FCC Form 470 Availability Delayed
On July 18, the FCC adopted a report and order (FCC 24-76) that makes E-Rate support available for eligible schools and libraries for Wi-Fi hotspots and wireless Internet services that can be used off-premises by students, school staff, and library patrons. The adoption of the report and order will require USAC to update the FY2025 FCC Form 470.
The availability of the FY2025 FCC Form 470 will be delayed until the report and order becomes effective 30 days after publication of the report and order in the Federal Register. Delayed implementation will allow USAC to include the newly eligible items approved by the FCC on the form so applicants can consider these in their competitive bidding processes. The FY2025 FCC Form 470 will also include updates to requesting school bus Wi-Fi related services and equipment. USAC will announce the availability of the FY2025 FCC Form 470 as soon as it becomes available on its website and via the E-Rate News Brief.
Due to the delay in the availability of the FY2025 FCC Form 470, applicants with long procurement processes can submit the current FY2024 FCC Form 470 in EPC to start their competitive bidding process for those that may need to start procurement early for existing eligible services. We recommend that applicants posting the FY2024 FCC Form 470 indicate in their narrative and any request for proposal (RFP) documents that the procurement is for FY2025. You can find the report and order on the FCC E-Rate page once it is released.
Prepare for the Upcoming Competitive Bidding and FCC Form 470 Process
Resources where you can find more information about compliance with the E-Rate program's Competitive Bidding process include:
Join the FCC Form 470/Competitive Bidding Webinar on August 1, 2024, to learn more about competitive bidding.
FCC Form 470 Reminders
The FCC Form 470 (Description of Services Requested and Certification Form) is the form used by applicants to request bids for eligible services and equipment and to initiate their required competitive bidding process for the E-Rate program. As noted above, the availability of the FY2025 FCC Form 470 has been delayed. USAC will announce when the FY2025 FCC Form 470 becomes available on its website and in a future News Brief. In the meantime, here are a few reminders about the FCC Form 470 if you are ready to begin your competitive bidding process for FY2025 (runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026).
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 to the E-Rate Checklist for Tribal Libraries (this resource applies to all libraries) to learn how to set up your entity in EPC. 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 proposals (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 and/or equipment 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 or RFP document 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.
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.
- Users with partial rights to the FCC Form 470 can complete the form but cannot certify the form.
- 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. On the service provider landing page, click the Search FCC Form 470 link. 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 and detailed information for multiple forms in the E-Rate FCC Form 470 Download Tool on the E-Rate Tools page on the USAC website.
2024 Training and Outreach
USAC is coming to an event near you in 2024. Below are some events we will attend in the next few months. Visit the In-Person E-Rate Training Events page to learn more about the events we’ll be attending where we can answer your E-Rate questions.
Webinars
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FCC Form 470/Competitive Bidding Webinar on
August 1, 2024, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern Time (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.
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Wi-Fi Hotspots Webinar on
August 15, 2024, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. USAC will discuss the FCC's report and order (FCC 24-76) that makes E-Rate support available for eligible schools and libraries for Wi-Fi hotspots and wireless Internet services that can be used off-premises including eligibility requirements, hotspots funding budgets and caps, and other requirements.
Register.
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Service Provider Training on
August 22, 2024, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. This session will give service providers who are new to the E-Rate program an understanding of their role in the process of delivering E-Rate supported equipment and services to applicants.
Register.
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Open Data Overview on
August 27, 2024, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. This webinar gives an overview of what Open Data is and how you can make it work for you.
Register.
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Open Data Training: Creating Reports and Visualizations on
August 29, 2024, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET. A follow-up to the August 27 Open Data Overview, this webinar will dive deeper into the tools and visualizations that are available. You will be taken through the steps to create your own custom reports and how to turn them into clear, comprehensible visuals.
Register.
2024 In-Person Training
E-Rate experts will provide training and discuss program updates. There will be time at the end of the sessions for USAC to answer questions from both new and experienced participants. Each session will cover the E-Rate program lifecycle beginning with the opening of the EPC Administrative Window, running a competitive bidding process, applying for funding, and invoicing for approved equipment and services.
Registration opened on April 23 at 3 p.m. Eastern Time (ET). Register for a training by selecting a link below.
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E-Rate Training: September 17, 2024 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Central Time in
Dallas, Texas.
Register.
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E-Rate Training: October 7, 2024 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time in
Washington, D.C. Register.
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E-Rate Training: October 29, 2024 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Central Time in
Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Register.
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Tribal-Focused E-Rate Training: November 12, 2024 in
Palm Springs, California. This Tribal-focused training will be held in conjunction with the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, & Museums' (ATALM) annual conference. To attend the E-Rate program training, you must be registered for the conference.
Event link.
Conferences
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Visit us at the
Association for Rural & Small Libraries 2024 Conference September 11-14, 2024 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Event Link.