March 22, 2019

Funding Year (FY) 2019 Window Countdown
(Form counts as of yesterday, 9:00 p.m. EST)

TIP OF THE WEEK: Visit our Online Learning Library to watch step-by-step FCC Form 471 video tutorials.

Commitments for Funding Year 2018

Funding Year 2018. USAC released FY2018 Wave 50 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on March 22. As of March 22, FY2018 commitments total over $2.18 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).

Reminder: CSB Hours During the Last Week of the Filing Window

Questions? We're here to help! Contact the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at (888) 203-8100 for assistance.

CSB will be open the following hours through the close of the filing window:

• Saturday, March 23 and Sunday, March 24 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT
• Monday, March 25 and Tuesday, March 26 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. EDT
• Wednesday, March 27 from 8:00 a.m. through 12:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday, March 28.

Generally, CSB has the highest call volumes during noon to 4:00 p.m. EDT. If an agent is not able to answer when you call, please open a customer service case in EPC and we will respond as quickly as possible. To open a customer service case in EPC, click the Contact Us link from the upper right menu on your landing page.

Reminders for FCC Form 471 Filers

Remember that the FY2019 filing window closes at 11:59 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. Below are some reminders for applicants who are still working on their FY2019 FCC Forms 471.

Service types featured on the FCC Form 470 and 471 must be consistent.

The FCC Form 470 that you cite on an FCC Form 471 funding request must have been posted for the same service type as that of the funding request.

The service types are:

• Category One: Data Transmission and/or Internet Access
• Category Two: Internal Connections
• Category Two: Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections
• Category Two: Managed Internal Broadband Services.

Ask CSB to help you with entity profile updates that you did not complete during the administrative window.

The administrative window – when you could make changes to your organization profile and profiles of entities linked to your organization – closed on January 15, 2019.

Note: CSB can assist you with certain changes even though the administrative window has closed. We can make changes to your profile if:

• The modifications will not affect the discount calculations for other applicants. (Remember that changing the discount for a school district can affect the discount for a library system and/or a consortium.)
• You are unable to complete and certify your FCC Form 471 if the changes are not made.

For example, CSB can update your mailing address, phone number, school or library attributes, federal and state codes (state LEA, NCES, FSCS), FCC Registration Number, account administrator, or general contact. CSB can also create a new entity that is filing and certifying an FCC Form 471 for the first time.

However, CSB cannot update your physical address, urban/rural status, or student counts, as these changes can affect discount calculations. Although CSB can create a new child entity (a new school that is part of a school district or a new library that is part of a library system), we cannot link or delink entities for the same reason.

For updates that CSB cannot make, you can still include those modifications in the review of your application by submitting a Receipt Acknowledgment Letter (RAL) modification (see below).

Use the RAL modification process to make entity changes that CSB cannot make.

The RAL modification process allows you to provide information about updates to your entities and to submit requests for certain other changes to your FCC Form 471. These modifications are included in the documentation that your Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) reviewer uses to review your form. In addition, you can include the information about new entities and updates to existing entities in one of the FRN narrative fields on your FCC Form 471.

To submit a RAL modification:

• Search for your certified FCC Form 471 from the FCC Forms and Post-Commitment Requests section at the bottom of your landing page in EPC.
• Click the application number to access your form.
• From the Related Actions menu at the top of the page, choose Submit Modification Request (RAL).
• Follow the prompts to access the fields appropriate to your request and provide the information.

As a reminder, consortia can still search for their member entities and associate any missing entities with the consortium.

Libraries must indicate their main branch.

Library systems must designate one branch of the library system as the main branch in order for EPC to calculate the library system's discount. (Independent libraries designate themselves as their main branch.)

If you are not sure how to determine your main branch, below is the guidance we have provided in the past:

1. Where there is an identified and known central outlet or main library branch, use that location.
2. If no library is identified as the "main" library branch, use the library location where official library business is transacted or mail is sent. However, note that this location cannot be a non-instructional facility.
3. If neither of the two preceding options fit the situation, the library can designate one library location as the "main" library. The library should document its rationale for designating that location as the "main" library and retain that documentation with its other program documentation so that it can be produced upon request.

Store the program documentation you must retain.

Program participants are required to retain receipt and delivery records relating to pre-bidding, bidding, contracts, application process, invoices, provision of services, and other matters relating to the administration of universal service for a period of at least ten years after the latter of the last day of the applicable funding year or the service delivery deadline for the funding request.

Now is a good time to find a permanent storage place for your competitive bidding documentation, while the process is still fresh in your mind. Specifically, documentation related to the competitive bidding process that you must retain includes:

• Your request for proposal (RFP) and RFP documents. Remember that "RFP documents" are not necessarily formal competitive bidding documents, but rather any documents you issue as part of your competitive bidding process that describe your project and/or requested services in more detail than in the fields provided on the FCC Form 470.
• Questions from potential bidders and your answers.
• Copies of winning bids, losing bids, and disqualified bids. Simply keeping the winning bid is not sufficient. (Note, however, that service providers are not required to keep copies of losing bids that they submitted – another good reason to keep yours.)
• A copy of your bid evaluation matrix, or whatever documentation you used when you evaluated all of the bids you received and chose the winning bid.
• A copy of the contract, if you signed a contract. If you are relying on a multi-year contract from a previous year, remember that you must count your ten-year retention period starting from the most recent year that you cite that contract on a funding request.