News of the Week

FY 2021:

Wave 2 for FY 2021 was released on Thursday, April 22nd, for a total of $62.9 million.  Cumulative commitments are $744 million.  Nationwide, USAC has now funded 54% of the FY 2021 applications representing 25% of the requested funding.

FY 2020:

Wave 52 for FY 2020 was released on Wednesday, April 21st, for a total of $2.70 million.  Cumulative commitments are $2.32 billion.  Nationwide, USAC has now funded 98% of the FY 2020 applications representing 86% of the requested funding.

Emergency Broadband Benefit (“EBB”):

The EBB program, providing discounts on home internet services for low-income families is expected to become operational this week.  Key informational resources on the program include the following:

• FCC Overview
• USAC Overview
• USAC FAQs
• Current list of EBB internet service providers
• E-Rate Central's strategy memoranda for schools and libraries

Very little public information has been released for schools and libraries already providing residential internet service for their students and patrons seeking EBB discounts on their “bulk” subscriptions (as discussed in our strategy memos).  In response to our inquiry, however, the FCC has confirmed that “the EBB discount available on to bulk billing arrangements if the provider is approved to participate in the Program and the household is eligible to receive the benefit.  Staff confirms that the broadband service must have been on offer as of December 1, 2020 and included in the provider’s election notice submitted with USAC.  Moreover, households must consent to participate in the program and the provider must retain that consent.”

More information on the EBB program will be available in a FCC webinar to be held tomorrow, Tuesday, April 27th at 3:00 p.m. EDT.

Emergency Connectivity Fund (“ECF”):

Reply comments on the FCC’s ECF docket were due last Friday, April 23rd.  Links to some of the more interesting reply comments, from school and library organizations, are provided below.

• American Library Association (“ALA”)
• Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
• Cities of Los Angeles et al
• Connected Nation, Inc.
• Consortium for School Networking (“CoSN”)
• Council of the Great City Schools (“CGCS”)
• EducationSuperHighway (“ESH”)
• E-Rate Central
• Funds For Learning
• Kellogg & Sovereign Consulting
• Michigan Department of Education
• National League of Cities
• National School Boards Association (“NSBA”)
• New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority (“PSFA”)
• South Dakota Department of Education
• State E-Rate Coordinators’ Alliance (“SECA”) (ex parte comments including recommended Form 471 modifications)
• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (“WDPI”)

The range of parties filing ECF reply comments is impressive and indicates understandable interest in the new $7 billion E-rate program.  The next step in the process will be the release of actual FCC rules, expected on or about May 10th.  Stay tuned!

Upcoming E-Rate Dates:

USAC’s Schools and Libraries News Brief of April 23, 2021 provides more detail on the E-Rate Invoices and Authorized Disbursements (FCC Forms 472 and 474) Dataset posted last week in the Open Data section of the USAC website (as had been promised in USAC’s previous News Brief.)

The new invoicing dataset includes information on all completed invoice line items for FY 2016 and later funding years.  "Completed" line items are those that USAC has reviewed and issued a payment decision.  Pending or canceled invoice items are not included.

USAC has scheduled the following two webinars on May 5th to discuss the use of the new dataset: