Upcoming Dates:
| May 23 |
FY 2024 Form 486 deadline for Wave 40. 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 41 05/30/2025
Wave 42 06/06/2025
Wave 43 06/13/2025
Wave 44 06/20/2025 |
| May 28 |
Extended invoice deadline for FY 2023 non-recurring service FRNs with approved extensions beyond the original January 28, 2025, deadline. |
| June 4 |
Estimated deadline for the House of Representatives to act — or not act — on H.J. Res. 33, the Congressional Review Act (“CRA”) measure that would overturn the FCC’s hotspots order. As discussed in our newsletter of May 12th, the Senate approved the CRA on May 8th. |
| June 30 |
Deadline to light fiber (or request a service delivery deadline extension) for FY 2024 special construction projects. |
| June 30 |
Last day to receive (or file service substitutions for) FY 2024 recurring services. |
| July 1 |
Withdrawal deadline for Cybersecurity Pilot participants opting not to continue in the Program. |
| August 18 |
Last day to certify a CBR Form 470 in order to meet the minimum 28-day posting period before filing the CBR Form 471. |
| September 15 |
Close of the Cybersecurity Pilot Form 471 application window and deadline for filing the Form 484 Part 2. |
Cyber Pilot Participant Withdrawals:
Last week, the FCC formally acknowledged the withdrawal of two more participants that had been selected for the Cybersecurity Pilot Program (see DA 25-415 and DA 25-416). One other participant had withdrawn the previous month. We suspect that we will see a few other applicants dropping out of the Pilot in the coming month as we get closer to the July 1st deadline that the FCC set for withdrawing without occurring any liability.
Here is the FCC’s FAQ on the withdrawal option:
The withdrawal of these three schools/districts brings the number of participants down to 704. Potentially, the most significant impact any withdrawals will have on the remaining participants is on the sixteen entities that received only 78% partial funding. As indicated in the FCC letters to the withdrawing participants, their three-year budgets will be reallocated to the other, partially funded, participants. Exactly how and when that reallocation will occur has not yet been specified by the FCC.
What we do know at present is that the impact of the three withdrawals to date would be insignificant. To keep within the Program’s $200 million pre-discount cap, the FCC created a subset of funded applicants, designated as “Partial Budget” (those with a slightly lower NSLP percentage) at a level of 78% of the “Full Budget” caps. In total, we estimate that the “Partial Budget” applicants received budget caps of about $3.8 million below that of the “Full Budget” applicants. The “Full Budget” caps freed up by the first three dropouts accounts for only about $128 thousand. For the sixteen “Partial Budget” applicants to reach their “Full Budget” cap levels, more Program participants would have to withdraw as well. Or — but this would take more time — actual CBR Form 471 funding requests and approvals would have to fall under the “Full Budget” caps and be reallocated to the “Partial Budget” applicants.
FCC Cancels Hog Trapping Contract:
The following has nothing to do with E-Rate but, to us, it does highlight current FCC efforts to do away with a multitude of obsolete rules, regulations, and contracts. The elimination of unnecessary rules and regulations is the objective of an ongoing proceeding dubbed “Delete, Delete, Delete” now in the reply comment stage (see our newsletter of May 5th). Last week, moreover, the FCC announced an internal DOGE team working to cut FCC-authorized contract spending by eliminating redundant and wasteful contracts.
Combing through a list of items targeted to be cut, we noticed a “feral hog trapping” contract priced at $58,785. For a problem as destructive as feral hogs can be, this seems like a small price to pay for any help the FCC could provide at a remote public safety site. For those questioning exactly how the FCC could help, we noticed through diligent research that one device option used to trap hogs, and that probably would require the FCC’s technical expertise, is a “Wireless Cell Phone Activated Hog Trap,” advertised on eBay for $4,100.
