February 5, 2021

Funding Year (FY) 2021 FCC Form 471 Filing Window Countdown

The Funding Year (FY) 2021 application filing window is open. The filing window will close on Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 11:59:59 p.m. EDT.

Note, the last day to post an FCC Form 470 for FY2021 and still be able to timely certify and submit an FCC Form 471 is Thursday, February 25, 2021.

TIP OF THE WEEK: Applicants and service providers should plan to complete and submit their invoices for FY2019 recurring services and special construction on or before February 25, 2021. Refer to last week's SL News Brief for additional information, including how to submit a request for an extension of this deadline.

Commitments for Funding Year (FY) 2020

FY2020. USAC released FY2020 Wave 41 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on February 4. As of February 5, FY2020 commitments total over $2.2 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).

FCC Seeks Comment On Using E-rate Funding To Support Remote Learning

On February 1, 2021, the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau released a Public Notice (DA 21-98) seeking comment on several petitions requesting emergency relief to use E-rate program funds to support remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Comments are due on or before February 16, 2021, and reply comments are due on or before February 23, 2021 in WC Docket No. 21-31. For information on filing comments and reply comments, please refer to the Public Notice.

FCC Form 470 Reminders

Although the FCC Form 470 for FY2021 has been available since July 1, 2020, we realize that some applicants have not yet posted their forms or started their competitive bidding processes for the upcoming funding year. We are providing a few reminders below for these applicants in advance of the February 25 deadline for posting the FCC Form 470 in EPC.

If you have questions or need more information about any of the information below, you can open a customer service case in EPC or call our Client Service Bureau (CSB) at (888) 203-8100.

You must log in to One Portal before you can access the FCC Form 470 in EPC.

Last July, we added an additional step to the login process. To access EPC, you must first log in to One Portal, our multi-factor authentication (MFA) system. MFA is a method of authenticating a computer user during the login process by requiring the user to enter two or more separate pieces of information, such as a password known to the user and a code we generate and send to the user by email or text.

If you are an EPC user but have not yet logged in to One Portal, we have already created a One Portal account for you. To set up your login credentials, click the blue Sign In button at the top of any USAC page and follow the instructions.

If you are new to EPC, your EPC account administrator can add you as a user to your organization's EPC account, which will also automatically create a One Portal account for you. As above, click the blue Sign In button at the top of any USAC page to set up your login credentials in One Portal so that you can access your EPC user account. If you need assistance, call CSB at (888) 203-8100.

Applicants submit and certify an FCC Form 470 to open their competitive bidding process.

Competitive bidding is a formal process to identify and request the products and services you need so that potential service providers can review your requests and submit bids in response. You list these products and services on the FCC Form 470 and then post the form to EPC.

• You are responsible for ensuring that the competitive bidding process is open and fair, and free from any potential conflicts of interest.
• You must wait at least 28 days after the FCC Form 470 is posted to the USAC website before you select a service provider, sign a contract, and certify an FCC Form 471.

The FCC Form 470 must be certified by a full-rights user.

In order to start an FCC Form 470, you must be an authorized user in EPC for your organization. Partial-rights and full-rights users can complete the required information on the form, but you must be a full-rights user to certify the form.

Contact your organization's EPC account administrator to be created as an authorized user or to change your user rights.

If you issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) and/or RFP documents, they must be uploaded into the FCC Form 470 in EPC.

If you are issuing an RFP or one or more RFP documents, you are required to upload those documents into your FCC Form 470 in EPC. We use "RFP" and "RFP document" generically to refer to any bidding document that describes your project and requested services in more detail than what is provided in the data entry fields on the FCC Form 470.

In addition, RFP documents issued AFTER an FCC Form 470 is certified MUST be uploaded into that certified FCC Form 470 in EPC. Note that you cannot upload a document to an FCC Form 470 after it is certified unless you uploaded at least one document to the form before you certified it.

As with the FCC Form 470, if you issue or intend to issue an RFP, the RFP must also be posted in EPC for at least 28 days (see above).

Your FCC Form 470 must be certified on or before February 25 in order to timely certify an FCC Form 471.

Applicants who certify an FCC Form 470 after February 25 will have to certify their FCC Form 471 after the application filing window closes. USAC will not process out-of-window FCC Forms 471 unless the applicant requests a waiver of the window filing deadline from the FCC and the FCC approves the applicant's request.

You will receive a Receipt Notification Letter in your EPC News feed shortly after you certify your FCC Form 470, and service providers will be able to view your form and all uploaded attachments.

Within a few minutes of certification, USAC will issue your FCC Form 470 Receipt Notification Letter (RNL) under the News tab in your EPC account.

EPC has a search and download function that will allow service providers with EPC accounts to search for certified FCC Forms 470. Also, anyone – even a service provider who does not have an EPC account – will be able to view a PDF version of your form and its associated RFP documents using the View an FCC Form 470 tool on the Tools page on the USAC website.

For more information on the FCC Form 470 and the competitive bidding process, you can review Step 1: Competitive Bidding and the various guidance documents linked to this page on the USAC website.