February 19, 2016

Commitments for Funding Year 2015

Funding Year 2015. USAC will release Funding Year (FY) 2015 Wave 38 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on February 26. This wave includes commitments for approved requests for all service types and at all discount levels. As of February 19, FY2015 commitments total over $3.04 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.

Additional Common Questions Received by CSB

We will continue to send out common questions received by our Client Service Bureau (CSB) along with their answers in SL News Briefs to help applicants trying to navigate and file program forms in the E-rate Productivity Center (EPC).

Q. I want to be set up as the account administrator for my organization. What should I do?

A. Call CSB at 1 (888) 203-8100. They can create an account for you as the administrator for your organization or, if you already have an account administrator, they can tell you who it is.

Q. My account administrator set me up as a user in EPC. Why can't I access any information?

A. In order to use EPC, you must set up a password and accept the Terms and Conditions of use. After USAC or your account administrator has created you as a user, do the following:

• Open a browser – we recommend using Chrome – and go to portal.usac.org. Click "I Agree," then "Reset Password." Enter your email address and click "Request Password Reset."
• USAC will send you an email with a link to set up your password. Click the link, choose a password, and then log in to EPC. 
• Under the News tab, you will see a task to accept your Terms and Conditions. Click the link, review the Terms and Conditions, and click "Accept" at the bottom of the page. You can now use EPC.

You can also watch a video to see the entire login process.

If you still cannot complete the process successfully, call CSB.

Q. My organization type (school, school district, library, library system, consortium, non-instructional facility) is not correct. How can I get it corrected?

A. Call CSB to change the entity type. They may have some questions for you to answer before they can make the change, especially if other organizations and/or users are associated with your organization.

Any full- or partial-rights user can then update the organization attributes (e.g., public, private, pre-K, adult ed, bookmobile) and other organization data (e.g., student counts for schools, square footage for libraries) after the organization type has been corrected.

Q. I finished entering a contract in my portal but now I can't update my information.

A. You can update your contract record and delete or replace the contract you uploaded at any point before you click "Submit" on the last entry screen. After you submit your contract record it cannot be edited, so you must create a new record if you have changes.

Q. I tried to start a program form, but I get a message that I have "insufficient access." What can I do?

A. Talk to your account administrator. He or she has not given you the appropriate level of rights to complete (partial rights) or complete and certify (full rights) a program form.

If you are the account administrator, you can give these rights to yourself. Click the "Manage User Permissions" buttons on your organization's profile page and choose the appropriate permissions on the line that includes your name.

Q. I filed an FCC Form 470 but didn't get my Receipt Notification Letter in the mail. What should I do?

A. Receipt Notification Letters (RNLs) are now sent directly to your account in EPC. You can find your RNL in your News feed (under the "News" tab).

If you need to make RNL corrections, click the form nickname under the Forms section of your landing page and choose "Related Actions." You will then be presented with the list of permissible RNL corrections.

Q. I want to update my profile information before I file my FCC Form 471. Where do I find the contracts page and the connectivity questions?

A. On your landing page, click the name of the parent organization (the first entry in the "My Entities" section). Then click "Related Actions."

• Click "Manage Contracts" and then the green "Add a New Contract" button to start a new contract record.
• Click "Manage Connectivity Questions" to answer or edit your answers to these questions. Note that these questions are only required for school districts, library systems, independent schools, and independent libraries.

Q. Some of my related entities are missing. How do I get them added?

A. In general, call CSB. CSB can find non-instructional facilities (NIFs), schools, or libraries that have not been correctly associated with your organization and associate them. If you have new schools, libraries, or NIFs, CSB can create them, assign them entity numbers, and associate them with your organization.

If you are a consortium, you can add missing consortium members yourself. Click your consortium name under the My Entities section of your landing page, choose "Related Actions," then "Manage Organization Relationships," then "Add Consortium Member." Note that in the search function, you can select more than one consortium member from your search results.

If you are a consultant, your clients must add you themselves to their organization profiles.

Q.  Why can't I file a program form using the entity number I used last year?

A. Only independent schools, independent libraries, school districts, library systems, and consortia can file program forms. In the past, a school district could file a program form using the entity number of its administrative office, a library system could file using the entity number of its main branch, an independent school or library could file for a consortium using its own entity number if it was the consortium leader. However, in EPC, the organization filing program forms must have its own separate entity number unless it is an independent school or library representing itself.

CSB can create a new entity number for you, either for your organization that will file program forms now or for the entity that previously filed program forms. Note that the entity numbers for organizations that file program forms are not eligible for discounts (again, unless they are independent schools or independent libraries representing themselves).