News of the Week

USAC released Wave 9 for FY 2019 on Thursday, June 20th.  Funding totaled $69.4 million.  Cumulative commitments through Wave 9 are $939 million. 

Post-Commitment Updates to USAC’s Search Commitments Tool:

Last Friday’s USAC News Brief (referenced below) reported total FY 2019 funding of over $967 million as of Wave 9.  At the same time, however, USAC’s Search Commitmentstool was showing the following funding data as of June 20th, the day Wave 9 was issued:

The obvious question:  Which figure — $967 million or $939 million — is the right measure of FY 2019 funding as of Wave 9?  The less than obvious answer:  Both!  It depends upon what funding you’re trying to measure — initial funding approvals as reported in the News Brief or current commitments as reported in the Search Commitments Tool.  The difference is currently $28 million.

USAC has no easy-to-use tool for keeping track of the total funding initially approved in each funding wave.  If you’re interested in this number, the trick is to capture the amount of new funding in each wave, as it is issued, and to maintain your own running total.

By way of contrast, keeping track of current commitments is simple.  The Search Commitments tool reports wave-by-wave funding data of all FRN commitments adjusted for any post-commitment changes (e.g., Form 500 funding cancellations or reductions).  So far there have been two post-commitment waves for FY 2019 — PC Wave 1 on May 28th and PC Wave 2 on June 12th — mostly affecting FRNs initially approved in Wave 1.

As of Wave 9, here are the wave-by-wave totals for FY 2019 funding:

Going forward, we will be reporting total current commitments as per the Search Commitments tool in our FY 2019 Funding Status section.  For the time being, total original funding approvals are continuing to be reported in USAC News Briefs.

Upcoming E-Rate Dates:

USAC’s Schools and Libraries News Brief of June 21, 2019 reports the addition of an eighth applicant training session in Atlanta this fall.  The complete schedule of USAC’s eight applicant and three tribal training sessions is listed below.  Registration can be completed online.

• September 16-17 at USAC's offices, Washington, DC (full)
• September 19-20 at USAC's offices, Washington, DC (full)
• September 23-24 at Brookhaven College, Farmers Branch, TX
• October 2-3 at Harper College, Palatine, IL
• October 16-17 at Clark College, Vancouver, WA (+ morning Tribal session October 16)
• October 22-23 at Raritan Valley Community College, North Branch, NJ
• October 31 – November 1 at California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, CA
• November 13-14 at Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA
• November 19 at Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, OK (Tribal one-day session)
• November 21 at San Juan College, Farmington, NM (Tribal one-day session)

Last week’s News Brief also provides additional updates on this summer’s service provider training.