Wave 30 of Funding Commitment Decision Letters (“FCDL”s) for FY 2025 was released on Thursday, November 13th, for $57.8 million. Total funding for FY 2025 is $2.34 billion. Currently, USAC has funded 92.3% of submitted applications, representing 78.0% of the dollars requested.
Cybersecurity Pilot Program:
The Form 471 application window for the Cybersecurity Pilot Program closed on September 15, 2025. Total pilot funding is capped at $200 million for 690 applicants. PIA review of Pilot applications is proceeding, with some applications reported to be “Wave Ready.” Issuance of the first Funding Commitment Decisions Letters (“FCDLs”), however, will require FCC review.
FCC, USAC, and the Government Shutdown:
The government shutdown officially ended Thursday, November 13th. During the shutdown, the FCC had furloughed approximately 80% of its staff. Returning staff may take some time to get back in place. The FCC has already said that it anticipates “complications” as staff returns from the six-week hiatus.
We are unsure of the FCC’s internal priorities for addressing issues that were pending prior to and/or arose during the shutdown. Here, however, is a partial list of the key E‑Rate-related tasks that need to be addressed:
- Comments on the FCC’s draft Eligible Service List for FY 2026, originally due October 15th, became due on November 14th, the first business day following the end of the shutdown. Reply comments will be due two weeks hence on November 28th. The FCC’s release of the final version of the ESL, typically issued in December, could be delayed.
- Nominations for six new (or renewed) USAC Board members (see Eligible Service List for FY 2026, and our newsletter of August 25th), originally due October 20th, similarly became due on November 14th.
- USAC had canceled FY 2026 webinars previously scheduled during the shutdown on the Category Two Budgets, the Administrative Window, the Post-Commitment Process, and Invoicing. We expect that these webinars (requiring FCC pre-review) will be rescheduled.
- As a result of the shutdown, the FCC had not issued a list of streamlined appeal and waiver decisions for the month of October. We would expect that the next set of streamlined decisions will be issued at the end of November, covering decisions from the early part of October and the later part of November.
- Pre-shutdown, USAC had been instructed to issue Funding Commitment Decision Letters (“FCDLs”) canceling all FY 2025 Form 471 applications for hotspots and school bus Wi‑Fi (see our newsletter of October 6th). This did not occur during the shutdown, pending FCC review of the denial language for the two sets of services.
- As indicated above, we understand that a number of Cybersecurity Pilot Program Form 471 applications are considered “Wave Ready” by USAC. We assume that the issuance of FCDLs for these applications are pending FCC review.