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 April 20, 2012

 

TIP OF THE WEEK: If you have not certified your FY2012 FCC Form 471 or submitted your Item 21 attachment(s), do so as soon as possible (see below). The extended deadline for certifications and Item 21 attachment submissions is May 9, 2012.

Commitments for Funding Year 2011

Funding Year 2011. USAC will release FY2011 Wave 44 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) April 24. This wave includes commitments for approved Priority 2 (Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance) requests at 90% and denials at 79% and below. As of April 20, FY2011 commitments total over $2.15 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.

Network Maintenance Reminder

The USAC website was taken down for maintenance at 8:00 pm EDT Thursday, April 19 and will be unavailable until 8:00 am EDT Monday, April 23. Both the static pages and the Apply Online and search functions will be unavailable.

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.

Service Provider Training Reminder

We have started waiting lists for both service provider training sessions; we will admit additional attendees from those lists as space becomes available. If you find that you cannot attend a session, please cancel your registration by sending USAC an email. This will allow us to open a space for someone else.

To register for a training session and/or to find information on hotel reservations, refer to the Upcoming Events section of the Trainings and Outreach page on the USAC website.

FY2012 Extended Deadline for FCC Form 471 Certifications and Item 21 Attachments

USAC has issued two sets of letters this week – one to applicants that filed an FCC Form 471 online before the close of the filing window but did not complete the certification process, the other to remind applicants to submit their Item 21 attachments. Both sets of letters were issued on Thursday, April 19; appropriate actions must be taken on or before Wednesday, May 9.

  • If you do not certify your FCC Form 471 on or before May 9, it will be considered out-of-window. You can certify an FCC Form 471 online or on paper.
  • If you do not submit an Item 21 attachment on or before May 9, the Block 5 Funding Request Number (FRN) associated with that Item 21 attachment will be considered out-of-window. You can submit an Item 21 attachment online, by email, by fax, or by mail or delivery service.

Each letter is discussed below.

Notification of Form 471 With No Certification

USAC issued just under 990 letters to applicants that filed an FY2012 FCC Form 471 online on or before 11:59 pm EDT March 20, 2012 but that have not yet certified that form. These letters notify applicants that they must certify their forms online or on paper on or before May 9 for those forms to be considered in-window.

Remember that FCC rules require USAC to consider all in-window funding requests first and, except for FY1999, funding has not been sufficient to fund out-of-window requests.

Remember that you can certify your form online or on paper.

To certify online, you must have a PIN and the security code for the FCC Form 471 you filed online:

  • Go to the Apply Online page and click on the Certify Complete button in the Form 471 column.
  • Enter your FCC Form 471 application number and security code and click on Electronic Certification.
  • You will see your Block 6 certification page with the information you entered when you submitted your form online. You must enter your PIN and check the box to affirm that you understand that the use of your PIN is the same as your written signature.
  • When you click on the Done button at the bottom of the page, the system will return a CertID, a unique number that confirms your successful certification. We suggest that you click OK on the popup box and then print a copy of the resulting certification page, which will feature your CertID in the signature line as proof of your successful online certification.

To certify on paper:

  • Go to the Apply Online page and click on the Certify Complete button in the Form 471 column.
  • Enter your FCC Form 471 application number and security code and click on Paper Certification.
  • You will see your Block 6 certification page with the information you entered when you submitted your form online. Print out a copy of the page, sign and date it, and send it to the address at the bottom of the page. You are advised to keep proof of postmark or delivery.
  • NOTE: If you do not have your security code, you can print out a copy of the certification pages (pages 6, 7, and 8 of the paper FCC Form 471); provide the same information you provided online; and sign, date and submit it as described above. Keep in mind that USAC may need to contact you to request a correction if any information on this paper certification does not match the information you submitted online.

After your FCC Form 471 has been successfully certified, the status of that form will change to "Certified - Out Of Window" on the Form 471 Application Status tool. Once all of the paper certifications postmarked on or before the extended deadline have been processed, USAC will move all applications with timely filed certifications (both online and on paper) in-window.

Item 21 Attachment Urgent Reminder Letter

USAC issued just under 7,600 letters to applicants that filed an FCC Form 471 received or postmarked on or before 11:59 pm EDT on March 20 but did not file an Item 21 attachment for one or more of the Funding Request Numbers (FRNs) featured on that form. These letters remind applicants that they must submit their Item 21 attachments on or before May 9 for the associated FRNs to be considered in-window.

USAC issued a letter for each FCC Form 471 that was missing one or more Item 21 attachments. Letters were issued for the following situations:

  • An Item 21 attachment was not submitted.
  • An Item 21 attachment was started online but the Submit button on the last page was not clicked. You must click the Submit button on the last page of the online Item 21 attachment to complete your submission.
  • An Item 21 attachment was submitted by email, by fax, or by mail or delivery service but the FRN associated with the Item 21 attachment was not clearly identified.

If you have already filed your Item 21 attachments by email, fax, or on paper, you can Submit a Question or call the Client Service Bureau to verify that we have received them. However, you should check your submission to make sure it includes Item 21 attachments for ALL the FRNs on your Form 471 and that all the associated FRNs are clearly identified.

If you have not yet submitted your Item 21 attachments, you must do so on or before May 9 for your FRNs to be considered in-window. The Item 21 Attachments guidance document has information on what to include in your Item 21 attachment(s) and how to file them online, by email, by fax, or on paper.

Remember that the Form 471 Application Status tool shows the status of an FCC Form 471, not the status of each FRN on that form.

 

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