Upcoming Dates:
| January 15 |
Opening of the Form 471 application window for FY 2025 (noon EST). |
| January 17 |
FY 2024 Form 486 deadline for Wave 22. The Form 486 deadline is 120 days after the FCDL date, or the service start date (typically July 1st), whichever is later. The next Form 486 deadlines for FY 2024 are:
Wave 23 01/24/2025
Wave 24 01/31/2025 |
| January 20 |
President Trump’s inauguration will mark a change in control of the Federal Communication Commission (“FCC”). The current Chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, has announced plans to step down that day. President-elect Trump has already announced that current Commissioner Brendan Carr will nominated to become the new FCC Chairman (see our newsletter of November 11). |
| January 28 |
Normal invoice deadline for FY 2023 non-recurring services. |
| February 25 |
Extended invoice deadline for FY 2023 recurring services for deadlines extended beyond the original October 28, 2024, deadline. |
| March 26 |
Close of the Form 471 application window for FY 2025 (11:59 p.m. EDT). |
Administrative Window Now Closed:
With the FY 2025 Form 471 Application Window opening Wednesday, January 15th, USAC closed the EPC Administrative Window last Thursday, January 9th. While the Administrative Window was open, applicants could easily update their entity data within EPC. With the Administrative Window now closed and entity data now locked for the duration of the Application Window, applicants will find it much more difficult to update entity data in EPC.
The primary purpose of locking entity data during the Application Window is to prevent changes in one applicant’s EPC data from affecting other pending applications. The most common cases in which such changes can cause problems involve relationships between an individual applicant and a consortium of which they are a member, or between an individual school applicant and its related library applicant.
Applicants needing to update their entity data during the Application Window can still do so but only with the direct intervention of the Customer Service center (“CSC”) or a PIA reviewer. Before a change can be made, USAC will need to make sure that the change will not impact any other filed or pending application(s). This can be done, but the process is not likely to be instantaneous. Change requests of this nature, if needed, should be made as early in the Application Window as possible.