October 27, 2017

Commitments for Funding Year 2017

Funding Year 2017. USAC is scheduled to release Funding Year (FY) 2017 Wave 23 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on November 3. As of October 27, FY2017 commitments total just under $1.64 billion.

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

Update on Fall Training

Registration is still open for the following USAC fall training sessions:

Minneapolis, Minnesota on November 2

Embassy Suites Minneapolis Downtown
12 Sixth Street South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402

Portland, Oregon on November 14

DoubleTree Hotel Portland
1000 NE Multnomah Street
Portland, Oregon 97232

You can register for either of these training sessions on the Upcoming Events section of the Trainings & Outreach page on the USAC website.

Note that attendees will make their own arrangements for hotels and meals.

FY2016 Invoice Deadlines and FCC Form 486 Notification Letters

The invoice deadline for a Funding Request Number (FRN) is 120 days after the last day to receive service or 120 days after the date of the FCC Form 486 Notification Letter, whichever is later.

• In general, the last day to receive service is June 30 of the funding year for recurring services and September 30 after the close of the funding year for non-recurring services.
• However, for a number of FY2016 applicants, their FCC Form 486 Notification Letter was (or will be) dated after the last day to receive service. This means that their invoice deadline will be calculated from the date of the FCC Form 486 Notification Letter rather than from the last day to receive service.

Our system is not yet able to calculate the invoice deadline automatically for these FRNs, so we are updating them manually. We will continue to run weekly queries to update these invoice deadlines until our system is able to calculate them automatically.

If you believe one or more invoice deadlines should have been updated due to a late FCC Form 486 Notification Letter, you can look up your FRN(s) in the FRN Extension Table.

NOTE: We are also running weekly queries to identify FY2016 non-recurring services that qualify for a service delivery deadline extension due to a late notification from USAC. Affected applicants and service providers will receive an email listing the affected FRN(s) and can also verify the extended deadlines by using the FRN Extension Table.

FRN Status Tool Changes

USAC has added several post-commitment (PC) wave fields to the FRN Status Tool:

• PC wave number (previously labeled Appeal Wave Number)
• Revised FCDL Date
• Post Commitment Rationale
• RFCDL Comment

Please note the following changes to the data display:

• Three pipes (|||) will be used to separate data when there is more than one post-commitment wave for a given Funding Request Number (FRN).
• Two pipes (||) will be used when there is more than one comment for an FRN.

Update on Hurricane Relief

In the September 15 SL News Brief, we provided some information about relief from E-rate program deadlines for applicants. The information below now includes guidance from the Order DA 17-984 released by the Wireline Competition Bureau of the FCC.

Affected applicants

USAC refers to the federal disaster declarations specified on the FEMA Disaster site when providing relief for certain programmatic deadlines under the E-rate program. You can search this site by state or tribal government for specific information. Generally the disaster declarations are on a county-by-county basis on the web page(s) for each affected state.

We have now compiled a complete list of applicants located in the areas affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and covered by federal disaster declarations. The following deadline relief applies to all applicants located in these areas, regardless of the extent of damage sustained, and in some cases to service providers providing services to these applicants. Please note that other federal disaster declarations can occur for areas impacted by other disasters, so the FEMA Disaster site is the best source of information.

Applicants and service providers in the areas affected by the hurricanes have until March 5, 2018 (150 days after October 6, 2017, the effective date of the order) to submit the following forms and requests:

• FCC Form 486 – EPC will continue to send out FCC Form 486 Urgent Reminder Letters based on the service start date reported on the FCC Form 471, but USAC reviewers will be able to reject any system-imposed funding reductions as long as the form is certified on or before March 5, 2018.
• FCC Form 472 – The invoice deadline will be extended to March 5, 2018.
• FCC Form 474 – The invoice deadline will be extended to March 5, 2018 for service providers who provide service to applicants in the affected areas.
• Appeals and waivers – If the 60-day deadline occurred or will occur after October 6, 2017, appellants will have until March 5, 2018 to submit an appeal or waiver to USAC or the FCC. Also, appellants who have already missed a 60-day deadline due to damage or disruption caused by the hurricanes have until March 5, 2018 to submit an appeal or waiver. Parties who rely on this waiver as a basis for filing their request for review or waiver beyond the required deadline should indicate such basis in their filing.
• Service substitution requests – Service substitutions are tied to the invoice deadline, so these may be requested until March 5, 2018.
• Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN) change requests – SPIN changes are tied to the invoice deadline, so these may be requested until March 5, 2018.

Implementation deadlines for applicants and service providers in the affected areas:

• Non-recurring services other than special construction for FY2016 – The deadline for these services is extended to September 30, 2018.
• Special construction commitments for FY2017 – The June 30, 2018 deadline to complete special construction and light the new fiber can be extended to June 30, 2019 if the applicant files an FCC Form 500 certifying that the special construction project was unavoidably delayed due to damage caused by the hurricanes.

Document retention requirements for applicants and service providers whose records were destroyed by the hurricanes:

• Applicants and service providers will not be penalized for failure to retain records destroyed by the hurricanes.
• Upon request from USAC or the FCC, applicants and service providers will be required to certify that the records, and any copies of such records, were destroyed by the hurricanes. However, applicants and service providers are responsible for obtaining such records, where available, from a third party.
• Record retention requirements under E-rate program rules continue to apply to all records that were not destroyed by the hurricanes.

Applicants and service providers who find that they need additional relief after March 5, 2018, may request specific relief from the Wireline Competition Bureau of the FCC.