News of the Week

USAC issued Wave 21 for FY 2023 on Thursday, September 14th, for $25.0 million.  Total funding is now $2.17 billion.  At this point, USAC has funded 93.5% of the originally submitted applications representing 74.7% of the dollars requested.

ECF for 2021-2023:

Total commitments for all three ECF windows are at $6.40 billion.

The FCC has released and is seeking comments on its proposed Eligible Services List (“ESL”) for FY 2024.  The draft ESL contains only minor changes from the current funding year — see DA 23‑819 (with changes highlighted in yellow).

Those hoping to see the FCC propose E-rate eligibility for additional services such as cybersecurity or school bus WiFi may be disappointed but should not be surprised.  The FCC’s annual proposal→comments→final ESL process has rarely been used to make other than minor changes.

FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s “Learn Without Limits” proposals, that would make school bus WiFi and hotspot loans eligible and establish a separate $300 million cybersecurity pilot program, are likely to proceed along separate paths.  In this regard, the Senate’s recent confirmation of Anna Gomez as the third Democratic FCC Commissioner is considered a positive development (see our newsletter of September 11th) even if such proposals are not implemented in time for FY 2024.

Public comments on the proposed ESL are due by October 12th with reply comments due by October 26th.  The final version of the ESL is expected by December as a pre-condition for the opening of the FY 2024 Form 471 application window in January.

Upcoming Dates:

USF Quarterly Contribution Factor Reaches New High:

The FCC announced (DA 23-843) that the Proposed Fourth Quarter 2023 Universal Service Contribution Factor will be 34.5% — exceeding the previous high of 33.4% in 2021.

This is not good news, particularly for those hoping to see the FCC expand E-rate funding for cybersecurity and other services.  The underlying problem is not that USF expenses (i.e., the revenue requirements) are rising but that interstate telecommunications revenues (i.e., the contribution base) have declined dramatically over the last decade and a half.  The only real long-term solution, as summarized in our recent comments to the Senate Universal Service Fund Working Group, would be to expand the contribution base with internet service and content provider revenues (see our newsletter of August 21st).

USAC’s E-Rate Special Edition News Brief Dated September 14, 2023, announces that the planned consolidation of the legacy E-rate billing system into EPC is expected to occur between October 31st and November 7th.  Once the transition occurs, all invoice related forms will be moved into EPC.  This includes:

• Form 472 Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement (“BEAR”) forms.
• Form 473 Service Provider Annual Certification (“SPAC”) forms.
• Form 474 Service Provider Invoice (“SPI”) forms.

The News Brief indicates that EPC will not be available during this transition period.  System availability during this period is shown as follows:

Note: Access to the ECF system will not be affected during the transition.

What is not addressed in the News Brief is the impact of the EPC shutdown on deadlines for any forms or filings that would otherwise be due during that period.  Note that an earlier version of the Special Edition News Brief, published on September 13th, indicated an EPC shutdown at 7:30 p.m.  on October 30th that would have affected several deadlines expiring at 11:59 p.m. that day.
As shown in the Upcoming Dates section above, only the following deadlines will now be affected:

• The November 3rd Form 486 deadline for Wave 10.
• Any USAC appeal deadline falling within the October 30th to November 6th period.

We assume, but have not confirmed, that these deadlines would all become November 7th.  A better assumption would be to treat all these deadlines as being October 30th, the preceding Friday.

In preparation for the transition, the News Brief announces the upcoming availability of e-Learning modules, system consolidation webinars, and “office hours” webinars.  USAC also reminds EPC Account Administrators to check and verify that user permissions for individuals involved in the invoicing process are properly specified.