Upcoming Dates:
| January 24 |
USAC Office Hours webinar on service provider selection and the Form 471 (register). |
| January 26 |
USAC Office Hours webinar on the Eligible Service List (register). |
| January 27 |
The Form 486 deadline for FY 2022 Wave 24. More generally, the Form 486 deadline is 120 days from the FCDL date or from the service start date (typically July 1st), whichever is later. Upcoming Form 486 deadlines are:
Wave 25 02/03/2023
Wave 26 02/10/2023
Wave 27 02/17/2023
Wave 28 02/24/2023 |
| February 13 |
Comments due on requests to allow the use of E-rate funds for advanced or next generation firewalls and/or other network security services (DA 22‑1315). Reply comments are due March 30th. |
| February 28 |
Last possible date — please do not wait until then — to file a Form 470 for FY 2023 in order to: (a) meet the 28-day posting period; (b) close the bidding process and select the winning bidder(s); (c) sign any necessary contract(s); and (d) file the Form 471 application(s), all on the last day of the application window. |
| March 28 |
Close of the FY 2023 Form 471 application window at 11:59 p.m. EDT. |
FCC Decisions on M&C Invoice Errors:
The FCC released an order (DA 23-48) granting thirty-seven appeals and one petition for reconsideration for applicants and service providers seeking to correct ministerial or clerical (“M&C”) errors in BEARs or SPIs submitted in the invoice process. In the same order, the FCC also granted seven appeals by applicants or service providers that had filed timely invoices but were later denied funding as a result of failures to submit timely responses (within seven days) to USAC requests for additional information. The FCC decisions dealt with filings as far back as December 2017 involving funding years from 2005 to 2021.
Going forward, with regard to timely-submitted invoices with M&C errors, the FCC directed USAC to treat corrections as appeals rather than requiring the submission of new invoices. As the FCC noted, the problem with requiring new invoices is that many would then have had to be submitted after the associated invoice deadlines, thus requiring FCC waivers as USAC had been advising.
On late or missing invoice information requests, the FCC found that the circumstances in these cases were identical to missed deadlines on Form 471 inquiries and should be handled in a similar manner. Specifically, the FCC found missing information request deadlines should be treated as procedural errors that can be handled by USAC appeals, not as the result of serious failures to adhere to core program requirements or misuse of funds requiring FCC action.