Commitments for Funding Year (FY) 2024
FY2024. USAC released FY2024 Wave 31 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on November 21. As of November 25, FY2024 commitments total over $2.4 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.
What to Do if You Missed Your October Invoice or FCC Form 486 Filing Deadline
October 30, 2024, was the deadline for most program participants to:
Missed Invoice Deadlines for FY2023
If you missed your invoice filing deadline and your deadline to request an invoice deadline extension for FY2023 recurring services, you must file a waiver request with the FCC before submitting your invoice to USAC to be processed. The USAC Appeals page provides information on how to submit appeals and waiver requests to the FCC. The FCC must grant your waiver request before USAC can extend the invoice filing deadline.
If your invoice was submitted by the deadline but USAC reduced or denied the amount invoiced, you must submit an appeal to USAC if you disagree with USAC's decision.
You can verify whether your invoice filing deadline was extended by searching for your Funding Request Number(s) (FRNs) in EPC and clicking the SDD/IDD History tab. You can also use USAC’s Open Data platform to confirm these deadlines. This data is in the E-Rate FRN Status Tool FY2016+. Please reference the video on how to use the tool to determine your deadlines.
Missed FCC Form 486 Deadline for FY2024
October 29, 2024 was the deadline for most program participants to certify an FCC Form 486 (Receipt of Service Confirmation and Children's Internet Protection Act Certification Form) for FY2024 for program participants that received a funding commitment decision letter (FCDL) and have a service start date of July 1, 2024.
If you missed your deadline to file the FCC Form 486 for FY2024 services, certify your form as soon as possible to minimize or avoid potential reductions in your funding commitments (see below).
FY2024 FCC Form 486 Urgent Reminder Letters
USAC started sending FCC Form 486 Urgent Reminder Letters for FY2024 on October 30. These emails are sent to account administrators, and the contact person on the FCC Form 471, and the letter is posted and available in the organization’s News tab in EPC.
As a reminder, if you received a positive funding commitment from USAC, the next step is to file an FCC Form 486 no later than 120 days after services have started. If this date is missed, USAC will adjust the service start date reported on the FCC Form 486 to the date 120 days before the certification date of the FCC Form 486 and will not pay invoices for services delivered before the adjusted date.
To avoid missing your 120-day deadline, look for the FCC Form 486 Urgent Reminder Letter. The letter is sent based on the service start date reported on the FCC Form 471. Applicants then have 15 days from the date of this letter to certify an FCC Form 486 without a change in the service start date.
The letter will appear in the organization's News tab in EPC. You can also find it in the Notifications section of the organization's landing page.
To view the letter, follow these steps:
- Log in to EPC.
- From the Notifications section of your organization's landing page, choose Notification Type “FCC Form 486 120 Day Notification” and Funding Year “2024”.
- In the right-hand column of each notification, click View Notification.
Applicants who receive this letter should certify their FCC Form 486 online no later than 15 days after the date of the notification to prevent adjustment of the service start date.
You can check if you have an approved or partially approved FCC Form 486 for your funding requests in the E-Rate FRN Status Tool FY2016+ in the “FCC Form 486 Status” column.
Status of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton Relief Implementation
On October 1, the FCC waived several E-Rate rules and deadlines, on a temporary basis, to assist participants and providers located in the areas affected by Hurricane Helene in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia (see DA 24-1025). On October 9, the FCC waived several E-Rate rules and deadlines, on a temporary basis, to assist participants and providers located in the areas affected by Hurricane Milton and its immediate aftermath (collectively, the Milton Weather Events; see DA 24-1059). The FCC extended the FY2023 implementation deadline for non-recurring services to September 30, 2025, for applicants in the Affected Disaster Areas, and the FCC extended the deadline for all other applicants that have non-recurring service funding requests with September 30, 2024 as the deadline in the Affected Disaster Areas.
The orders do not affect the existing contract end dates (CEDs) between you and your service provider. If you have CEDs that end before the new service delivery deadline (SDD), and you have extended, or will extend, your contract with the service provider, you should submit an FCC Form 500 to request an update to the CED in EPC to match the updated CED with your service provider.
USAC processed these SDD extensions per the FCC order. Applicants do not need to submit an FCC Form 500 for the SDD change granted by this order to take effect. However, the FCC Form 500 must be submitted if you are updating the CED as noted above.
You can use the E-Rate FRN Status Tool FY2016+ in USAC’s Open Data platform to view the current SDD, Invoice Deadline Date (IDD), and CED for any FRN. View the video on how to use the tool to determine your deadlines.
Competitive Bidding – Set Yourself Up for Success
The competitive bidding process is the foundation of the E-Rate program that ensures that schools and libraries can get telecommunications equipment and services at reasonable prices. The process must be “open and fair,” and requires the applicant to select the most cost-effective provider based on its bid evaluation factors. The price of the eligible equipment and services must be given the most weight during the bid evaluation process.
The process starts when an applicant certifies and submits an FCC Form 470 and USAC posts the form on its website. FCC Forms 470 can be found using the E-Rate FCC Form 470 Download Tool, which service providers can use to find equipment and services to bid on. You can view and export FCC Form 470 data and download PDF versions of the FCC Form 470 and any Request for Proposal (RFP) attachments.
Your FCC Form 470 and any RFPs should provide sufficient information for potential bidders to provide a comprehensive bid (e.g., for managed internal broadband services specify the exact equipment/services to be managed) and you should ensure that no potential bidders help you prepare and submit the form. Any assistance from a potential bidder is an FCC rule violation that would result in a recovery of funds, potentially over a number of years if a multiyear contract resulted from that process.
Your competitive bidding process must be open and fair. “Fair” means that all bidders are treated the same and that no bidder has project information others do not. “Open” means there are no secrets in the process and that all bidders know what is required of them. To ensure your process is open and fair, you must provide any FCC Form 470, RFP and other information/updates in EPC for all potential bidders for at least 28 days.
You must wait at least 28 days from the posting date of your FCC Form 470/RFP before selecting a service provider. The day you certify the FCC Form 470 is day 1. For example, if the FCC Form 470 is certified on the 1st of the month, you may select a service provider on or after the 29th of the month. This is the allowable contract date (ACD) found on your FCC Form 470 Receipt Notification Letter (RNL) sent to you when you certified your form.
After waiting the required 28 days, you next evaluate the bids received against your evaluation criteria, which must include price of eligible services/equipment as the primary evaluation factor (highest weighted factor). Only the costs of eligible goods/services should be evaluated in this criterion. Creating a bid evaluation matrix can help you consider all responsive bids and select a service provider that meets your needs.
Once you select a bidder and enter into a contract, you can upload those contracts to EPC so that the information is available to reviewers when it comes time to submit your funding requests on the FCC Form 471 application during the annual funding year window. Go to the Competitive Bidding Infographic to learn more.
2024 Training Recordings Available
USAC held many online and in-person training events throughout 2024 to help applicants and service providers through the E-Rate process. Visit the In-Person E-Rate Training Events page to learn where we had in-person training events and see the presentations. The page also lists the conferences we attended in 2024. Email ErateEvents@usac.org to make additional suggestions for 2025.
2024 Recordings Available
Below are on-demand recordings and accompanying slides from our 2024 webinars. To watch a webinar recording, click Watch next to the session on the Webinars page.
Getting Started
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E-Rate Fall Training: E-Rate Program Overview September 16, 2024 –
Webinar Slides
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E-Rate Fall Training: Eligible Services 101 September 24, 2024 –
Webinar Slides
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E-Rate Fall Training: Category Two Budgets October 17, 2024 –
Webinar Slides
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Pre-Commitment
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Filing the FCC Form 470 and Competitive Bidding Webinar August 1, 2024 –
Webinar Slides
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Pre-Commit (FCC Forms 470, 471, ESL, etc.) E-Rate Question & Answer (Q&A) Session February 22, 2024 –
Webinar Slides
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E-Rate Fall Training: Pre-Commitment Process September 19, 2024 –
Webinar Slides
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E-Rate Fall Training: EPC Administrative Window October 24, 2024 –
Webinar Slides
Applying for Funding
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Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) Review and Selective Review Process Webinar April 18, 2024 –
Webinar Slides
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E-Rate Fall Training: Post-Commitment Process October 31, 2024 –
Webinar Slides
Invoicing
Open Data
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Open Data Training: Creating Reports and Visualizations August 29, 2024 –
Webinar Slides