News of the Week

Wave 28 for FY 2015 will be released this Friday, December 11th. Funding for FY 2015 is available for both Category 1 and Category 2 services at all discount levels. As of Wave 27, cumulative funding for FY 2015 was $2.68 billion.

Wave 71 for FY 2014 will be released on Wednesday, December 9th. Funding for FY 2014 is available for Priority 1 services only. Priority 2 funding has been denied at all discount levels. Cumulative funding for FY 2014 is over $2.28 billion.

Applicant Form 498 Now Available Online:

Effective July 1, 2016, reimbursements on applicant BEARs, including those for FY 2015 services, will be paid directly to applicants (rather than being funneled through service providers). Because these payments will be made electronically, USAC needs to collect appropriate banking contact and account information. This will be done through a revised Form 498, a form previously used only by service providers. As discussed in USAC’s News Brief last week (see below), the applicant version of the Form 498 is now available in EPC. Applicants seeking direct BEAR payments as of next July, do not actually have to submit Form 498s until then, but the process is not difficult; completing it now means one less deadline for 2016.

In addition to the Form 498 information provided in USAC’s News Brief, the following points should be noted:

1. User permission, either as a “School or Library Official” (who can certify a Form 498) or “General Financial Contact,” is controlled by the EPC Account Administrator. Only EPC users so designated can complete, certify, or even view a Form 498. Access to the Form 498, for those with permission, is through the Lightning Bolt page (discussed in our newsletter of November 30, 2015). Users with access will see the following Lightning Bolt entry (others will not):
   
2. The Form 498 completion and certification process works a little differently from the Form 470. Although there is still a “Save and Continue” button on intermediate pages, there is no “Save and Share” button. Most likely this is because the Form 498 requires less information, presumably assuming that it will be completed independently by a single user.
3. The Form 498, once started, becomes a “Task” for that user in the event the user exits an incomplete form. To save work at any point within the process, even mid-page, use the “Save Changes” hot link in the upper right-hand corner.
4. Completion of the Form 498 requires several applicant ID numbers including a Dun and Bradstreet Number (formally abbreviated as “D-U-N-S®,” but often shortened to “DUNS,” number). Most schools and libraries already have DUNS numbers; others will have to apply for them. USAC’s S&L News Brief of November 20, 2015, suggested using the online D-U-N-S database website to search for an existing DUNS number, but that lookup mechanism is available only to applicant personnel (or an “agent”) and is a bit cumbersome. E-Rate Central expects to have a DUNS search tool, accessible by BEN, available on its state website pages by the end of this week.

Organization Email Addresses:

Users attempting to update individual school and library information, using EPC’s “Manage Organization” function, are finding that several fields must be completed before updates may be submitted. One of the mandatory fields confusing some users is “Email.”  The question being asked is: “What or whose email?”  The answer, it turns out, is: “It doesn’t matter.”  The system just requires an email address — a requirement that USAC intends to eliminate in a future EPC upgrade. At the moment, however, users can simply enter their own email addresses — which has the advantage of indicating who made the most recent changes — or any email addresses. 

FCC Website Redesign:

The FCC has announced a large-scale redesign of its website (www.fcc.gov), scheduled to be completed later this week, and a separate effort to update its Electronic Comment Filing System (“ECFS”). An FCC webinar discussing both changes will be held today, December 7th, at 10:00 a.m. ET. Important E-rate links in the redesigned sites will be noted in future newsletters.

Upcoming E-Rate Training:

USAC has completed its eight regular fall applicant training sessions. Copies of the slides used can be accessed via USAC’s Training and Outreach archives. USAC has also posted many additional EPC resources (including videos used during its training sessions). Over the next 4-5 months, we expect USAC to conduct additional webinar-based training on EPC and on other critical FY 2016 application topics.

Form 486 Deadlines for 2015:

The Form 486 deadline for certifying the start of service (and CIPA compliance, if applicable) is 120 days from the later of the FCDL approval date or the start of service date. The remaining 2015 deadlines for approved FY 2015 applications (adjusted to Monday for 120-day deadlines falling on Saturdays) are:
                                          Wave 11                12/07/2015
                                          Wave 12                12/14/2015
                                          Wave 13                12/21/2015
                                          Wave 14                12/28/2015

Applicants who missed earlier Form 486 deadlines should review the related article in USAC’s latest News Brief (see below). USAC has mailed FCC Form 486 Urgent Reminder Letters to many of these applicants giving them an additional 20 days (to December 22nd) to file without penalty.

The S&L News Brief of December 4, 2015, discusses the following two topics:

Form 486 Urgent Reminder Letters:

Last week, USAC issued 1,740 FCC Form 486 Urgent Reminder Letters to applicants who may have missed Form 486 deadlines for FY 2015 applications approved in early funding waves. The letters give applicants who did miss their initial Form 486 deadlines until December 22nd to file.

In deciding which applicants may have missed their Form 486 deadlines, and thus determine those to whom it should send reminder letters, USAC used a Service Start Date of July 1, 2015. The deadline identification process apparently was based on Form 486s received and processed as of the preceding week. As a result, and in an abundance of caution, reminder letters may be received by applicants whose services have not yet started (or started less than 120 days ago), or whose Form 486s were recently filed (or are still in a USAC processing backlog).

Applicants receiving FCC Form 486 Urgent Reminder Letters should carefully review the status of their Form 486s, if necessary, by contacting USAC’s Client Service Bureau.

Applicant Form 498 Available in EPC:

As discussed further above, a Form 498 is now available to applicants in EPC. Completion of a Form 498 will be required for applicants seeking BEAR reimbursement payments after July 1, 2016. Barring changes in form information, this new form will not be required every year.

USAC’s News Brief article on the new Form 498 includes a summary of:

• Basic information
• General financial contact information
• Organization numbers
• Remittance contact and financial information
• Associated BENs
• Principal Communication Type (automatically populated)
• Certification