Commitments for Funding Years 2011 and 2010

Funding Year 2011. USAC will release FY2011 Wave 27 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) December 28. This wave includes commitments for approved Priority 2 (Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance) requests at 90%. As of December 23, FY2011 commitments total over $1.38 billion.

Funding Year 2010. USAC will release FY2010 Wave 79 FCDLs December 29. This wave can include commitments for approved Priority 2 requests at all discount levels. As of December 23, FY2010 commitments total over $2.91 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. 

Winter Contact Procedure Starts Today 

USAC has procedures to contact applicants and service providers if more information is necessary to process a form. Below we discuss two of the most common situations where USAC needs more information:

• Problem Resolution. If USAC cannot data enter a paper form because information is missing or inconsistent, Problem Resolution will attempt to reach the contact person listed on the form (or in our database, if no contact information is provided on the form) to obtain the necessary information.
• Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) review. If USAC needs more information from an applicant to complete the review of an application, a PIA initial reviewer will use the contact information provided on the form to send questions and to inform the applicant of any correctable errors discovered on the form during review.

We realize that, during a summer period and a winter period each year, many applicants are unavailable due to extended holiday and break schedules.

• Our winter period is defined as the Friday before Christmas Day through the Friday after New Year's Day. The dates of the current winter period are December 23, 2011 through January 6, 2012.

If our first attempt to reach you is on or after December 23, and we cannot confirm by telephone that you are available to respond to our questions, we will not begin Problem Resolution or PIA review until after January 6. However, if we have made a successful contact with you before December 23, your 15-day response clock has started and we will act on the information we have on hand if we have not heard from you by the response deadline. We define a successful contact as:

• A sent email message with no return notification of non-delivery or out-of-office response
• A sent fax with a confirmation of successful transmission
• A voicemail left at the contact person's telephone number if the recorded greeting does not state that the contact person is out of the office
• A live person answering our call at the contact telephone number or a return call responding to our message.

If PIA has already contacted you and you wish to designate someone to answer questions in your absence, be sure to send your designee's contact information to your PIA reviewer. If PIA has not contacted you and your designee will be checking your messages, be sure that you have provided written authorization for your designee to answer questions about your application. PIA will request this authorization in case any changes need to be made.

• Be sure your designee has sufficient knowledge of your application to respond accurately. If someone answers a call from PIA but is not in a position to answer PIA questions, make sure the PIA reviewer understands that the application review should be put on hold until you return.

Reminders:

• PIA will be actively reviewing applications during the winter period. If you can respond to PIA questions at this time, please do so - it will speed the processing of your application.
• If our first successful contact with you was before December 23, your 15-day response clock is ticking. Be sure to respond by the deadline or let us know that you need more time to prepare your response.
• Continue to monitor your preferred mode of contact if you are working. If you or your designee can respond to questions, the processing of your application can continue.
• If you are not available to respond to questions, it would be helpful for you to indicate this via your preferred mode of contact (e.g., an out-of-office message on email or voicemail). We will not continue to leave messages or send emails if we know you are unavailable.

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

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