Commitments for Funding Year 2014

Funding Year 2014. USAC will release Funding Year (FY) 2014 Wave 49 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on April 15. This wave includes commitments for approved Priority 1 (Telecommunications Services and Internet Access) requests at all discount levels. As of April 10, FY2014 commitments total just under $2.19 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.

REMINDER: CSB Extended Hours

As in the past, the Client Service Bureau (CSB) extends its hours of operation near the close of the application filing window to assist applicants with any last-minute issues.

CSB will be open tonight until 10:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday until 5:30 pm, each weekday next week until midnight, and 1/2 hour after the window closes at 11:59 pm on Thursday, April 16.

Please feel free to contact us during these additional hours – either through Submit a Question or by phone at (888) 203-8100 – through the close of the application filing window. All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). 

Tips for Last-minute Filers

To help last-minute filers through the online FCC Form 471, we are providing the following tips. We suggest that you start now, even if you are only gathering the reference documents – Student counts, square footage, contracts, equipment list, and so on – that you will need to complete your form online.

To be considered in-window, you must click the Submit button on the last screen of the online FCC Form 471 on or before 11:59 pm EDT on Thursday, April 16, 2015.

You should always do these three things:

1. Before you start, gather the documents you will need to file your form. These can include copies of contracts or bills, National School Lunch Program (NSLP) data, lists of eligible entities receiving services, and so on.
2. After you finish the Basic Information section of the form, print a copy of the page that contains your FCC Form 471 application number and security code. You will need these numbers if you do not complete your online form in one session or if you want to certify your form online. We will also email this information to the email address you provide for the contact person.
3. Check and recheck your work. It is much easier and quicker to file a correct submission now than it is to correct it later.

Below you can find information on each section of the online form.

BASIC INFORMATION

The FCC Form 471 is filed by the Billed Entity – the entity that pays the bills.

• Call CSB at (888) 203-8100 if the Billed Entity does not yet have an entity number. You will need this number to file the form.
• Go to the CORES website to request an FCC Registration Number for the Billed Entity if the Billed Entity does not have one. The Billed Entity must have this number to file the form.
• If you are using a consultant, the consultant must have a Consultant Registration Number. A consultant is any non-employee of the entity applying for funding that assists in filling out the application materials for a fee. "Non-employee" includes contractors or others who are employed by the entity on a contract or short-term basis who do not receive a W-2 application from the entity filling out the application. If you are not using a consultant, do not provide entries in any of the fields that request consultant information.

You can file this form as an individual school, school district, library, consortium, or statewide application.

• Individual school: Generally, independent schools file this application type. An independent school – a school that does not share a common board with other schools and is individually responsible for its finances and administration – calculates its E-rate discount based on its own student population. However, an individual school that is part of a school district will calculate and use the discount for the school district of which it is a part.
• School district: Generally, school districts file this application type. In addition, multiple charter schools, diocesan schools, and other groups of private schools can file as a school district if they are not individually responsible for their finances and administration.
• Library: Generally, independent libraries and library systems file this application type. In addition. library consortia – a local, statewide, regional, or interstate cooperative association of libraries that provides for the systematic and effective  coordination of the resources of schools, public, academic, and special libraries and information centers, for improving services to the clientele of such libraries – can file as a library.
• Consortium: Generally, consortia of schools and/or libraries file this application type. Schools and/or libraries can form consortia to undertake a project or achieve a goal that is beyond the resources of the entities acting as individuals – for example, to aggregate demand in order to lower prices and promote more efficient use of shared facilities.
• Statewide: Generally, billed entities that cover an entire state file this application type. Note that a statewide application must represent ALL of one or more of the following: all public schools in the state, all private schools in the state, all libraries in the state. Otherwise the billed entity should file as a consortium.

DISCOUNT CALCULATION

Before you start the Discount Calculation section of the form, you must decide whether you will file for Category One services or Category Two services on this form. If you intend to file for both categories of service, you must file a separate form for each category.

• Category One services include Voice Services, Telecommunications Services, and Internet Access.
• Category Two services include Internal Connections, Managed Internal Broadband Services (MIBS), and Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections (BMIC).

In this section, you first identify and create a list of your "parent" entities; then, for each parent entity, a list of its associated "child" entities. If you do not have entity numbers for one or more of your parent or child entities, contact CSB so that we can assign entity numbers to them.

• An independent school or a school district enters one parent entity - itself. Note that an individual school that is part of a school district is not a parent entity. [Note: For specific guidance on Educational Service Agencies (ESAs), refer to last week's SL News Brief.]
• An independent library or a library system enters one parent entity - itself. Note that an individual library that is part of a library system is not a parent entity.
• A consortium or statewide application creates a parent entity for each member of the consortium. Again, while an independent school or library can be listed as a parent entity, the list of parent entities for a consortium or statewide application is generally comprised of school districts or library systems.

After you have created your list of parent entities (remember that this may be a single entity), click each entity to open a screen for you to enter the discount information for that entity.

As you enter this information, keep the following points in mind:

• If a school participates in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), enter the total number of students in the school and the percentage of Direct Certification students for that school. Do not apply the multiplier – the online system will do that.
• For the number of students full- or part-time, enter the maximum number of students that will be using services at one time. For example, if the school has 20 full-time students that attend classes all day, 35 part-time students that attend classes only in the morning, and 15 part-time students that attend classes only in the afternoon, enter "55" (20 full-time + 35 part-time).
• For libraries, you must indicate the central outlet or main administrative branch of the library system. If you need more information, refer to the February 6, 2015 SL News Brief.
• Libraries must provide the total square footage of each library outlet. This includes the square footage of all floors occupied by the library outlet and enclosed by the outer walls of the library outlet, including areas off-limits to the public.

Using the information you provide, the system will calculate the shared Category One discount and the shared Category Two discount for all of the entities on this form. 

• Voice services are subject to a 20 percent phase-down for FY2015. This information will show up later in the form.
• The maximum discount for Category Two services is 85 percent for FY2015.

FUNDING REQUESTS

In this section, you provide information on the products and services for which you have requested discounts, including contract information, specific makes and models of equipment, and eligible and ineligible costs. You should review the FY2015 Eligible Services List (ESL), as the eligibility of many products and services has changed from prior years. (The ESL is Appendix C of the order releasing the ESL.)

As you enter this information, keep the following points in mind:

• You must list Voice services in a separate funding request under the service type Voice Services. The system will not allow you to choose Telecommunications Services and then enter a request for voice.
• For Category One services, if you choose "Yes" under Last Mile, you must allocate the number of lines you entered among the entities receiving those services by clicking the Manage Entities button.
• For each line item in a Category Two funding request, you must allocate the eligible cost of the service among the entities sharing the service. You can indicate that all entities are sharing the service equally by entity or proportionally by number of students (schools) or square footage (libraries), or you can enter your own allocation entity by entity.

CERTIFICATIONS & SIGNATURE

In this section, you check the appropriate certifications and provide the contact information for the person authorized to sign the application.

We suggest that you review your form before you submit it. Because the online FCC Form 471 does not have a Print Preview function, the best way to do this is to click Display and expand all the accordions [i.e., click all the plus signs (+)], and review those portions of the form, then expand the funding request information separately and review that information.

After the form is submitted, it must be certified.

• If USAC has issued a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to the authorized person, the form can be certified online.
• If the authorized person does not have or cannot locate his or her PIN, the form must be certified on paper. You can print a copy of the certifications, sign and date them, and either fax or mail them to USAC using the information provided.

If you have any questions or need more information, Submit a Question or call CSB as indicated above.