March 3, 2017

Commitments for Funding Year 2016

Funding Year 2016. USAC is scheduled to release Funding Year (FY) 2016 Wave 37 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on March 9. This wave includes commitments for approved applications for all service types and at all discount levels. As of March 3, FY2016 commitments total over $2.31 billion.

On the date the FCDLs are issued, you can access your FCDL notification from the Notifications section of your landing page in the E-rate Productivity Center (EPC).

Reminders for Submitting Fiber Requests on the FCC Form 470

Applicants submitting FCC Forms 470 for leased dark fiber and self-provisioned networks are required to seek bids for other services and do a cost comparison to choose the most cost effective option.

Below is a table which will help applicants include the appropriate service requests on their FCC Form 470 and in their Request for Proposal (RFP) and RFP documents:

* "Transport Only – No ISP Service" is a technology-neutral way of seeking support for bandwidth including, but not limited to, leased lit fiber. To select Leased Lit Fiber only would be insufficient.

Posting reminders:

• Post an FCC Form 470 for all of the services you are seeking. Only mentioning a service in your RFP insufficient.
• Don’t forget that if you need Internet Access services, you must post for those separately if you are considering any of the above options.
• When posting for Self-Provisioned Networks, you must post for services provided over a third-party networks on the same FCC Form 470, unless you already posted for services provided over a third party network and received no bids in response.
• Remember to post for any Network Equipment and/or Maintenance and Operations services if needed.
• If you indicate you have an RFP, make sure all of the services you request on the FCC Form 470 are included in your RFP.
• Providers searching the FCC Forms 470 for fiber opportunities should also review service requests posted under "Transport Only – No ISP Service." 

FY2017 Application Filing Window Reminders

The FCC Form 471 application filing window for FY2017 is now open. It will close at 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, May 11, 2017.

April 13, 2017 at 11:59 PM EDT is the last opportunity for applicants to post an FCC Form 470, wait 28 days, and still be able to choose a service provider, sign a contract (if applicable) and certify an FCC Form 471 on the last day of the window. 

Note that you do not have to file an FCC Form 470 for FY2017 if one or more of the following are true:

• You signed a multi-year contract pursuant to an FCC Form 470, and that contract will cover services through the close of FY2017.
• You signed a contract with voluntary extensions and you exercised an extension that will cover services through the close of FY2017.
• You are purchasing services from a state master contract signed by the state pursuant to a state-filed FCC Form 470. If this is the case, please review the State Master Contract guidance on USAC's website for more information.
• You are purchasing a commercially available, business class Internet service that meets certain requirements. See Step 2 - Responding to Bids for more information on the requirements that this service must meet.

Update on Post-commitment Review Processes

USAC is now reviewing certain post-commitment submissions, including the following:

• Appeals
• Service substitutions
• Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN) changes

To file an appeal, service substitution, or SPIN change, click the appropriate link at the top of your organization's landing page in EPC, provide the information requested, and click Submit.

After you submit an appeal or request, you can access its record from the FCC Forms and Post-Commit Requests section of your organization's landing page.

• Click the radio button for Post-Commit Requests.
• Select the Request Type and Funding Year. You can also limit your search by choosing the Status.
• To view a single record, click the hyperlinked Request Number of the record. 

USAC review process

We review your request after you submit it. If we have sufficient information to make a decision on the request, we can complete our review without contacting you.

However, if we do not have sufficient information to make a decision, the following steps occur:

• We send an email to all full- and partial-rights users who have post-commitment rights. (Your account administrator assigns these rights in the Post-Commitment Permission column of the Manage User Permissions page in EPC.) We also create a post in the News tab which indicates that it came from the FRN Case Review Team. 
• If the full- or partial-rights user is already logged in to EPC, clicking the link provided in the email will take the user directly to the record for the appeal, SPIN change request, or service substitution request. If the user is not logged in, clicking the link will take the user to the EPC log in page and then, after the user logs in, directly to the record.
• The user chooses Related Actions from the left-hand menu and is presented with three options: Respond, Request Extension, and Cancellation.

To respond to USAC's questions, click Respond and follow the prompts to provide your information.

• The deadline to respond to appeal questions is 15 days.
• The deadline to respond to SPIN changes and service substitutions is seven days.

If you need more time to respond, click Request Extension.

• The first extension, which is always seven days, is granted automatically. You will receive a confirmation immediately after you submit your extension request.
• A second extension must be reviewed by USAC and is not automatically granted.

If you want to cancel your appeal or request, click Cancellation.

• You can cancel the entire appeal or the entire request.
• If more than one Funding Request Number (FRN) is featured in your appeal or request, you can choose to remove one or more of the FRNs while still preserving the appeal or request.