FCC Appeal Decision Watch:
The FCC issued another monthly set of precedent-based decisions in Public Notice DA 15-983, including:
- Dismissed four filings characterized by the applicants as requests for waiver, but which the FCC determined were requests for review. Under current E-rate rules, a request for review (often called an “appeal”) of a USAC decision must first be made to USAC. A request for a waiver of an E-rate rule — and this can often be a fine distinction — can be made directly to the FCC.
- Dismissed as moot one request for review for which USAC had already approved the underlying request.
- Granted requests for review or waivers for:
- Fifty requests for invoice deadline extensions (involving FY 2012 applications) filed less than 12 months late.
- Four waivers for late-filed Form 471 applications submitted within 14 days of the close of the window (a standard FCC waiver condition).
- Five requests to allow the installation of Internal Connections hardware from suppliers other than the equipment vendors. Until clarified by the FCC, USAC had previously interpreted E-rate rules as requiring that equipment purchase and installation be covered by the same contract.
- Denied requests for review or waivers for:
- One procurement appeal involving an inadequate Form 470, violation of the 28-day bidding rule, and lack of a legally binding agreement.
- Four requests for invoice deadline extensions filed less than 12 months late.
- Ten additional requests for invoice deadline extensions filed more than 12 months late.
Note the distinction between the FCC’s decision on invoice deadline extension requests approved (3.a above) and these two sets of denials (4.b and 4.c). he FCC makes a clear distinction between requests filed before vs. after the 12 month point, requiring different standards for approval. Within 12 months, the applicant must demonstrate a “reasonable basis” for the delay; after 12 months, the applicant must demonstrate “extraordinary circumstances.”
- Six waivers for late-filed Form 471 applications not submitted within 14 days of the close of the window nor presenting “special circumstances” justifying waivers.
- One request to reinstate cancelled funding requests that the FCC determined was “purposely canceled”, presumably as opposed to have been canceled in error.
- One request for review and/or waiver involving the lack of a legally binding agreement.
- Seven untimely filed requests for review submitted outside of the normal 60-day appeal window.
- One request to amend an application “to remove entities with lower discount rates from applications so as to raise the applicant’s average discount rate above the funding threshold.” Specifically, the applicant, having filed an FY 2012 application for Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections at a district-wide average of 88% had sought to remove all sub-90% schools from the calculation after finding that the Priority 2 threshold for that year had been set at 90% — a nice try leading to an unsurprising FCC decision.
EPC Webinar September 10th:
USAC will be conducting an introductory one-hour webinar on the new E-rate Productivity Center (“EPC”) at 2:00 p.m. eastern daylight time on Thursday, September 10th. Registration is available online.
Non-Recurring Service Delivery Deadline for FY 2014:
The non-recurring service delivery deadline for FY 2014 is September 30, 2015. At least in the past, this deadline has applied most commonly to the installation of Internal Connections equipment — services that were not funded at any discount level for FY 2013 or FY 2014. However, the September 30th deadline also applies to the installation portion of new Priority 1 services. If an applicant has a Priority 1 service approved for FY 2014, that approval will not cover any monthly recurring charges incurred after June 30, 2015, but non-recurring charges incurred between July 1 and September 30, 2015, would be covered. Requests to extend the September 30th service delivery deadline, due to circumstances beyond the applicants’ or service providers’ control, should be submitted on or before the September 30th deadline.