Responding quickly to the request of ECF stakeholders (see our newsletter of February 14th), the FCC issued an Order (DA 22-176) last week extending the service delivery deadline for first and second window ECF applicants from June 30, 2022, to June 30, 2023. The service delivery extension applies to both internet services and connected devices. We applaud the FCC for making this swift and beneficial decision for applicants nationwide.
Important exception: The service delivery extension does not apply to funding for the construction of new networks or the provision of customer premises equipment for datacasting services. The service delivery deadline for either of these two rarely requested services remains one-year from the FCDL approval date.
By extending the service delivery deadline one year, the FCC is assuring that ECF applicants funded for twelve months of recuring internet services not fully utilized by June 30, 2022, or for equipment purchases stalled because of supply chain problems will be able to fully utilize their approved funding. The extension of the service delivery deadline to June 30, 2023, will also extend the invoice deadline for all these funding requests to August 29, 2023.
The FCC’s extension order recognizes that some applicants may have already reduced their funding requests, perhaps due to funding decision delays, because of the perceived inability to fully use their funding by June 30, 2022. So as not to penalize those applicants now that the service deadline has been extended, the FCC indicated that such applicants may submit waivers “asking that the voluntarily reduced funds be restored to those funding requests and subject to the updated June 30, 2023, service delivery date.”