Commitments for Funding Year 2009

Funding Year 2009. USAC will release FY2009 Wave 86 FCDLs May 23. This wave includes commitments for approved Priority 2 requests at 77% and above and denials at 76% and below. As of May 20, FY2009 commitments total over $2.8 billion. 

On the day the FCDLs are mailed, you can check to see if you have a commitment by using USAC’s Automated Search of Commitments tool.

PIA Manager List for Contact Information Changes

Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) continues to review applications during the summer months. However, we must be able to make a successful contact with the contact person or his/her designee in order to get answers to any questions we have about the application.

Applicants can provide alternate or additional contact information in Item 6f (Holiday/vacation/summer contact information) of the Form 471. This information allows PIA to work on applications if the contact person is not available at the telephone, fax, or email provided earlier in Item 6 of the form. If you did not provide this information – or if your information has changed – you can email an update to the PIA manager for your state from the list below.

Please include your Billed Entity Name, Billed Entity Number, and Form 471 Application Number(s) in your email to allow us to identify your application(s).

Fall 2011 Applicant Training Dates - Registration Reminder

USAC has already started waiting lists for a few of the fall applicant training sessions. We will continue to work the waiting lists as we receive cancellations, so please email USAC Training if your plans change and you are unable to attend a session.

As a reminder, here are the dates and locations for the fall training sessions. You can register and make hotel reservations by following the appropriate links on the Training Sessions and Presentations page on the USAC website.

Tracking Non-regular Waves

In general, USAC issues a wave of funding commitments each week for applications from the funding year(s) currently being reviewed and processed on a regular (usually weekly) basis; at present this includes both FY2009 and FY2010. However, USAC also issues occasional waves for current and previous funding years as additional reviews are completed or appeal decisions are reached. Below we explain more about these non-regular waves and how to find information about the commitments in these waves.

• All wave numbers consist of three alphanumeric characters. The first regular waves for a funding year are designated Wave 001, Wave 002, and Wave 003, and this numbering system continues until the regular wave process changes to an occasional wave process (see below).

Previous year occasional funding waves

Although USAC stops issuing regular weekly waves for a funding year once most of the funding commitments have been issued, USAC continues to review applications for that funding year and issues occasional waves as decisions can be reached on remaining applications.

These occasional waves are designated with the number of the last regular wave for that funding year (dropping the preceding "0") followed by a letter. For example, because the last regular wave for FY2008 was Wave 080, the first occasional wave was Wave 80A, the second occasional wave was Wave 80B, and so on.

• NOTE: Because USAC has already issued 26 occasional waves for FY2006, the occasional wave after Wave 60Z was designated Wave 61A. This numbering scheme has been and will be repeated for other funding years if necessary.

Appeal waves

Applicants and service providers can appeal USAC decisions either to USAC or to the FCC. If the appeal of a USAC funding decision is successful and original or additional funding can be committed for a Funding Request Number (FRN), the funding will be committed in an appeal wave. Each appeal wave is specific to a funding year, and the FRNs originally featured on FCDLs for that funding year continue to be associated with that funding year. USAC issues Revised FCDLs in an appeal wave to notify both applicants and service providers of revised funding commitments.

Appeal waves are designated with an "A" preceding a two-digit number. For example, the first appeal wave for a funding year is designated Wave A01, the second appeal wave is Wave A02, and so on.

• NOTE: Because USAC has already issued 99 appeal waves for FY2005, the appeal wave after A99 was designated Wave B01. This numbering scheme will be repeated for other funding years if necessary. 

Post-commitment split FRNs

In some cases, USAC must create a new FRN after an FCDL is issued. Generally this occurs because the applicant has changed service providers in the middle of a funding year and the commitment must be split between the old and the new service providers. When an FRN is split, USAC creates a new FRN and processes the revision to the commitment by including it in an appeal wave. The revision process consists of:

• Calculating the amount of funding to be removed from the original FRN and applied to the new FRN, which may include recapturing funds if service costs decrease.
• Reducing the committed amount on the original FRN.
• Creating a new FRN with a committed amount based on the supporting documentation provided by the applicant. The sum of the revised commitments for the original FRN and the new FRN cannot exceed the total amount originally committed on the original FRN.

Split FRNs must be run through the appeal wave process for them to take effect. Appeal waves can therefore contain changes to commitments other than those that result from successful appeals.

Locating information on non-regular waves

Occasional funding waves – those that contain original commitments but that were issued after regular waves ended – are included in the Automated Search of Commitments search page. If you know the number of the wave and the state you are interested in, you can go to the search page for this tool and either:

• Click on the funding year, click on the wave number, then click on the committed amount for that state from the list of states, or
• In the Basic Search box, enter the funding year, state, and wave number separated by single spaces and click "Search." For example, if you wanted to look at commitments for Alabama for FY2006 Wave 60R, you would enter "2006 AL 60R" and click "Search."

For detailed information on using the Automated Search of Commitments, review the instructions on the Automated Search of Commitments Welcome page on the USAC website.

Appeal waves and new FRNs created in a post-commitment FRN split are not included in the Automated Search of Commitments. However, you can find more information on commitments in all types of waves using the Data Retrieval Tool (DRT).

To perform a search using the DRT, start by providing two pieces of information:

• Funding Year
• State, Billed Entity Number (BEN), or Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN)

If you are interested in a particular wave, you then enter the three-digit wave number.

• Use the Wave Number entry field for regular commitment wave numbers and occasional commitment wave numbers.
• Use the Appeal Wave Number entry field for appeal wave numbers.

Keep in mind that an FRN that was included in an appeal wave can feature both a wave number and an appeal wave number. However, you only need to enter one wave number to get information on that FRN.

You can then choose "Select Standard Report" for a report with a few pre-set fields or "Select Data Points" to specify the fields you are interested in. You can consult the DRT Instructions page for more information about using the advanced features of this tool including definitions of the available fields you can choose with the "Select Data Points" option. 

Please do not reply to this email directly, as it was sent from an unattended mailbox.

1997-2011, Universal Service Administrative Company, All Rights Reserved.