January 31, 2020

Funding Year (FY) 2020 FCC Form 471 Filing Window Countdown

The Funding Year (FY) 2020 application filing window is open. The filing window will close on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 at 11:59:59 p.m. EDT.

Note, the last day to post an FCC Form 470 for FY2020 and still be able to timely certify an FCC Form 471 is Wednesday, February 26, 2020 (see January 3 SL News Brief).

TIP OF THE WEEK: Be sure to complete the delivery and installation of Category Two equipment no later than the service end date (the last date to receive service) for the associated funding request. This deadline applies even if applicants did not include the cost of the installation in the funding request and intend to perform the installation themselves.

Commitments for Funding Years 2019 and 2018

Funding Year 2019. USAC released FY2019 Wave 44 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on January 30. As of January 31, FY2019 commitments total over $2.19 billion.

Funding Year 2018. USAC released FY2018 Wave 80 FCDLs on January 28. As of January 31, FY2018 commitments total over $2.27 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).

Upcoming Dates and Deadlines

February 25, 2020 at 11:59:59 p.m. EST

Deadline to certify an invoice for FY2018 recurring services if the applicant or service provider requested and received an extension of the October 28, 2019 deadline.

• After this date, applicants and service providers cannot certify invoices for these services without an approved waiver request of this deadline from the FCC.

February 26, 2020 at 11:59:59 p.m. EST

Deadline to certify an FY2020 FCC Form 470 and still be able to meet the required 28-day waiting period for the competitive bidding process.

• If the FCC Form 470 is certified after this date, the applicant's FCC Form 471 must be certified after the application filing window closes, and will not be considered for funding unless the applicant receives approval for a waiver request of the application filing window deadline from the FCC.

March 25, 2020 at 11:59:59 p.m. EDT

The FY2020 application filing window closes.

• An FCC Form 471 certified after this date will not be considered for funding unless the applicant receives an approval for a waiver request of the application filing window deadline from the FCC.

Visit USAC's website for information on upcoming dates related to the E-rate Program.

Update on Webinars

In last week's SL News Brief, we announced the series of office hour webinars we are conducting during the FY2020 application filing window. Below is the schedule of upcoming webinars showing the topic, the time, the recommended audience, the E-rate experience level (beginner, advanced, all) and the specific training materials that attendees should review in advance of the webinar.

If you are interested in attending, register for the webinar and watch the training module(s) and/or other assigned materials. When the webinar starts, we will provide a short summary of the materials you should have reviewed, and then open the floor for questions. We will identify questions of general interest that come in through the chat function and respond to them verbally. As with our regular webinars, we will give preference to questions about the topic under discussion.

For more information on webinars, including recordings of past events, please visit our Webinars page.

Amortization Rule Eliminated

On January 27, 2020, the FCC released a Report and Order (FCC 20-3) eliminating the requirement that applicants amortize upfront, non-recurring charges of $500,000 or more over three years, a requirement originally put in place in calendar year 2000.

In 2014, the FCC suspended this requirement through FY2018. In January 2019, the FCC proposed permanently eliminating the requirement and waived it for the duration of the rulemaking process. Through this Report and Order, it has now been permanently eliminated.

Erratum

Due to an editing error in last week's SL News Brief, the emailed copy reported the number of FCC Forms 470 filed for FY2020 to be 20 as of Thursday, January 24 at 9:00 p.m. EST. The correct number was 13,052, which was featured in the News post in EPC and the online version of the January 24 SL News Brief.