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August 21, 2015
TIP OF THE WEEK: If you have posted an FCC Form 470 for FY2016, watch the News feed in your EPC portal account for the notice that your 28-day waiting period has ended. Remember that you must wait at least 28 days after your FCC Form 470 is certified before you select a service provider and sign a contract (if applicable).
Commitments for Funding Years 2015 and 2014
Funding Year 2015. USAC will release Funding Year (FY) 2015 Wave 14 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on August 28. This wave includes commitments for approved requests for all service types and at all discount levels. As of August 21, FY2015 commitments total over $1.28 billion.
Funding Year 2014. USAC will release Wave 64 FCDLs on August 26. This wave includes commitments for approved Priority 1 (Telecommunications Services and Internet Access) requests at all discount levels. As of August 21, FY2014 commitments total over $2.27 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.
Completing FCC Form 470, Part 4 - Technical Contact and Procurement
In the July 10 SL News Brief, we included some general information about the FCC Form 470 for FY2016. We have also covered the following sections of the form:
In this issue we will cover the "Technical Contact Information" and "Procurement Information" sections. You can also watch the Technical Contact and Procurement video on the FCC Form 470 Video Series page to see how to complete these sections of the online form.
1. Log in to your account in EPC and access your partially completed form.
For purposes of this issue, we are assuming for example's sake that you have already completed the "Basic Information" and either or both of the "Category One Service Requests" and "Category Two Service Requests" sections of your FCC Form 470. As a reminder, in order to continue an FCC Form 470, you must be a full-rights or partial-rights user for the organization you represent. In other words, you must be able to create and certify forms (full-rights user), or just create forms (partial-rights user).
First, log in to EPC using your email address and password. Then, from your landing page, open the "Tasks" menu by clicking the "Tasks" tab in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. On the following screen, you will see a list of the FCC Form(s) 470 that are currently in process. Click the form you want to continue.
2. Provide your technical contact information.
The progress bar at the top of the FCC Form 470 page shows that you have completed the "Basic Information" and "Service Requests" sections of the form and are now in the "Technical Contact Information" section. There is also a time and date stamp to indicate when the form was last saved.
Your next step is to identify a technical contact person on the "Technical Contact Person" page. This is a person separate from the contact person who can provide additional technical details or answer specific questions from service providers about the services you are seeking. NOTE: Designating a separate technical contact person is optional. If the contact person you identified in the "Basic Information" section already has the necessary technical knowledge or will be responsible for researching and providing answers to technical questions, you do not need to designate a separate technical contact person.
If you do not want to designate a technical contact person, click "No," then "Save and Continue" to go on to step 3 below.
To designate a technical contact person, click "Yes." You then have two options:
Search EPC System. When you click this button, a search box will appear. Start typing the first name, last name, or email address of the person you are searching for, and a list of potential matches will appear. Click the correct entry when it appears. The system will then populate the contact information for the correct person (name, email address, and telephone number) below the search box.
Enter Details Manually. If the technical contact person is not listed in EPC, you can enter the appropriate information manually. When you click this button, the following entry fields appear:
Enter the information for the technical contact person. Note that you are not creating an account for the technical contact person in EPC, but you are making this information available as part of this form to assist potential bidders.
After you have clicked "Yes" and provided the technical contact person information, click "Save and Continue."
3. Identify or provide any state or local procurement requirements.
The progress bar at the top of the FCC Form 470 page shows that you have completed the "Basic Information," "Service Requests," and "Technical Contact Information" sections of the form and are now in the "Procurement Information" section. There is also a time and date stamp to indicate when the form was last saved.
On the "State or Local Procurement Requirements" page, you have the ability to notify potential bidders of any state or local competitive bidding requirements that apply to the procurement for the services you are seeking.
If you click "Yes," you will see a free-form text box appear.
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If the information you want to provide on procurement requirements is not extensive, you can type it in the text box.
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If the information you want to provide on procurement requirements is extensive, you can provide a URL to a web page that potential bidders can access to learn about the requirements or direct them to another source for this information.
Note that you can also use this text box to provide information such as how service providers may contact you, specific bid formats, and reasons for bid disqualification. You could also provide a mechanism for potential bidders to submit questions and a URL where you will post those questions and their answers for the benefit of all bidders. This information is especially important if you are not also issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP).
If you do not have any applicable state or local procurement requirements or other information you would like to share with potential bidders, click "No."
After you have clicked "Yes" and entered your information or clicked "No," you are ready to review the information you have entered on your form and – if you are a full-rights user – to certify your form. We will cover the review and certification of your form in next week's SL News Brief.
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