Introduction
The E-Rate Central News for the Week is prepared by E-Rate Central. E-Rate Central specializes in providing consulting, compliance, and forms processing services to E-rate applicants. To learn more about our services, please contact us by phone (516) 801-7804 or by e-mail. Additional E-rate information is located on the E-Rate Central Web site.
Wave 25 Funding for FY 2002
| Wave 25 of Funding Year 2002 will be released on Monday, March 24, 2003. Total funding in this Wave is approximately $46 million for 135 applications. The cumulative total for FY 2002 is now $1.875 billion for 28,685 applications. |
| As was the case in the previous wave, denials involving larger applicants and vendors may be more important than actual funding approvals in Wave 25. While we do not expect these denials to be as large as in Wave 24 (which aggregated to almost $590 million), details will not be available until next week.
Internal Connection funding is still being provided only for applicants at the 90% discount rate. No Internal Connection funding is available below 80%. The availability of Internal Connection funding for applicants receiving discounts in the 80-89% range cannot yet be projected, but requests for funding in this range are currently being reviewed by the SLD.
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| Recent stories of waste, fraud, and abuse in the E-rate program - most of which, we hasten to add, refer to funding requests, not to actual SLD approvals - has led to a flurry of activity in Washington, DC. In the past week or two, we have seen the following:
(1) The introduction of H.R. 1252 - the "E-rate Termination Act" - by Rep. Tancredo (R-CO) to eliminate Universal Service Funding for schools and libraries. The bill does not appear to have wide support, but does have a certain shock value (see HR1252).
(2) The House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Rep. Tauzin (R-LA), has begun an E-rate investigation and has issued extensive data requests to the FCC and USAC for documents on product eligibility, appeals, audits, staff training, etc. What will be particularly interesting, if it becomes available, is a request for information about service providers and beneficiaries that have been associated with violations of program rules in more than one application or more than one funding year (see data requests).
(3) FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy announced a public forum to be held on May 8th to discuss E-rate rules and oversight procedures. It is expected that the forum will focus not only on waste, fraud, and abuse issues, but on other proposed program changes related to a Notice of Public Rulemaking ("NPRM") and related comments initiated by the FCC over a year ago. An announcement of the forum is (see http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-232039A1.pdf.
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| Applicants funded in FY 2002 must file their Form 486s within 120 days of the start of service (normally July 1, 2002) or the date of the Funding Commitment Decision Letter ("FCDL"), whichever is later. The deadlines for applicants funded in Waves 1-16 have already passed. Applicants funded in subsequent waves, have later Form 486 deadlines. Here are the next few: |
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FCDL Date |
486 Deadline |
| Wave 17 |
12/03/02 |
04/02/03 |
| Wave 18 |
12/17/02 |
04/15/03 |
| Wave 19 |
12/30/02 |
04/29/03 |
| Wave 20 |
01/13/02 |
05/13/03 |
| Wave 21 |
01/27/02 |
05/27/03 |
| Wave 22 |
02/10/02 |
06/10/03 |
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| The penalty for missing a Form 486 deadline is a reduction in funding. If, for example, an applicant funded in Wave 6 does not file the associated Form 486 until April 1st, the SLD will adjust the start date to 120 days prior to the postmark date (i.e., to December 2, 2002) and reduce the funding accordingly (i.e., to 7/12ths of the originally approved amount). |