Bulletins

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, invites comment on the implementation of certain provisions of its pilot broadband program (e-Connectivity Pilot) established on March 23, 2018, in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. The e-Connectivity Pilot was appropriated $600 million in budget authority to be operated under the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 on an expedited basis. Loans and grants are limited to the costs of the construction, improvement, and acquisition of facilities and equipment for broadband service in eligible communities.

Pursuant to our procedure for resolving requests for review, requests for waiver, and petitions for reconsideration of decisions related to actions taken by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) that are consistent with precedent (collectively, Requests), the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) grants, dismisses, or denies the following Requests. The deadline for filing petitions for reconsideration or applications for review concerning the disposition of any of these Requests is 30 days from release of this Public Notice.

This chart may be useful in planning for various E-rate filings. Last updated June 2018.

In this Public Notice, the Office of Managing Director (OMD) announces that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the third quarter of 2018 will be 0.179 or 17.9 percent.

Petition of NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association and the United States Telecom Association for Forbearance Pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 160(c) from Application of Contribution Obligations on Broadband Internet Access Transmission Services

The State E-Rate Coordinators’ Alliance (“SECA”) submits these Comments in response to the FCC’s Notice of Public Rulemaking (“NPRM”) released April 18, 2018 (WC Docket 18-89; FCC 18-42) seeking comment on rules to restrict Universal Service Fund (“USF”) payments to any equipment and/or service providers deemed to be posing a national security risk to U.S. communications networks or supply chains. These Comments address those NPRM concerns most directly related to E-rate applicant issues

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and U.S. Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) introduced a bill to put wireless internet on school buses in order to help students without broadband access at home get online to study and do homework. The legislation would allow the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) E-Rate program to reimburse schools that place wi-fi technology on school buses carrying students to school or school related extracurricular activities.

Pursuant to our procedure for resolving requests for review, requests for waiver, and petitions for reconsideration of decisions related to actions taken by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) that are consistent with precedent (collectively, Requests), the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) grants, dismisses, or denies the following Requests. The deadline for filing petitions for reconsideration or applications for review concerning the disposition of any of these Requests is 30 days from release of this Public Notice.

Excerpt from a letter to Ms. Radha Sekar, Chief Executive Officer USAC:
By this letter, as part of our ongoing oversight of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), we provide guidance to USAC regarding its application of the Federal Communications Commission's E-rate competitive bidding rules for Category One services for Funding Year (FY) 2018. Specifically, we explain how USAC should treat E-rate applications for which the applicants completed their FCC Form 470 in a manner that was reflective of their service needs, but may have been inconsistent with USAC's guidance on which services to select from the FCC Form 470 drop-down menu within the E-rate Productivity Center (EPC) online portal.

This is the twentieth report in a series prepared by federal and state staff members for the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service (Universal Service Joint Board). Unless otherwise noted, this report is generally based on information available to us as of September 2017. These reports contain information designed to monitor the impact of various universal service support mechanisms and the method used to finance them. These reports are part of a monitoring program created by the Federal Communications Commission in 1997 in CC Docket No. 96-45 to replace a similar program in CC Docket No. 87-339 that previously resulted in a series of nineteen Monitoring Reports.

E-Rate Central, as the designated state E-rate coordinator for New York, supports the recent filings initiated by the Ohio ITCs’ March 16th ex parte notice concerning the mid-window changes to the FY 2018 FCC Form 470 pulldown menus for Category 1. The menu changes made last August, combined with inconsistent and belated guidance provided by USAC over the remainder of the competitive bidding window, created extensive confusion among the applicant community — ourselves included. This is a problem that needs to be solved now. Relief is needed as a part of the FY 2018 application review process to avoid penalizing applicants who, in good faith, tried to bid and apply for Internet access and transport services. Changes need to be made to the FY 2019 Form 470 pulldown menus before July 1, 2018, to avoid similar applicant and service provider confusion in the coming procurement/application cycle.

Pursuant to our procedure for resolving requests for review, requests for waiver, and petitions for reconsideration of decisions related to actions taken by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) that are consistent with precedent (collectively, Requests), the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) grants, dismisses, or denies the following Requests. The deadline for filing petitions for reconsideration or applications for review concerning the disposition of any of these Requests is 30 days from release of this Public Notice.

In this Public Notice, the Office of Managing Director (OMD) announces that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the second quarter of 2018 will be 0.184 or 18.4 percent.

Pursuant to our procedure for resolving requests for review, requests for waiver, and petitions for reconsideration of decisions related to actions taken by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) that are consistent with precedent (collectively, Requests), the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) grants, dismisses, or denies the following Requests. The deadline for filing petitions for reconsideration or applications for review concerning the disposition of any of these Requests is 30 days from release of this Public Notice.

 In this order, by our own motion, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) grants a limited waiver of the Commission’s invoicing rules to allow certain E-rate program applicants and service providers to submit invoices beyond the 120-day extension already received and allowed by the Commission’s rules. Specifically, and subject to the limitations stated in this order, the Bureau waives the invoice extension rule to provide extraordinary relief for applicants and service providers that: (a) timely requested and received the one-time 120-day extension to invoice for funding year 2016 recurring charges from the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC); and (b) are currently awaiting, or recently received, a revised funding commitment decision letter (RFCDL) issued for a post-commitment change request submitted to USAC (Affected Program Participants). 

Pursuant to section 54.507(a) of the Commission’s rules, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announces that the E-rate program funding cap for funding year 2018 is $4,062,030,726. The new cap represents a 1.8 percent inflation-adjusted increase in the $3,990,207,000 cap from funding year 2017.  The Commission began indexing the funding cap to inflation in 2010 to ensure that E-rate program funding keeps pace with the changing broadband and telecommunications needs of schools and libraries.