E-Rate for FY 2026 – Application Window:

Application Window: The Form 471 application window for FY 2026 will open midday on Wednesday, January 21st, and close on Wednesday, April 1st, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.  The administrative window, giving applicants an opportunity to update their EPC entity profiles, will close on Friday, January 16th, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

For additional guidance, see USAC’s E-Rate News Brief dated December 18th.

E-Rate for FY 2025:

USAC issued Wave 36 for FY 2025 on Thursday, January 8th, for $10 million.  Total funding for FY 2025 as of Wave 36 stands at $2.51 billion. Currently, USAC has funded 94.7% of submitted applications, representing 84.8% of the dollars requested.

Cybersecurity Pilot Program:

USAC did not issue a Cyber Pilot funding wave last week.  After one Cyber wave, issued December 17th, funding for the Cybersecurity Pilot Program stands at $18.7 million.

Upcoming Dates:

FCC Streamlined Decisions:

The FCC issued another set of “streamlined,” precedent-based appeals and waivers on January 2nd.  As with past streamlined decisions, applicants facing similar problems to those addressed in these decisions may garner useful information by carefully reading the additional FCC explanations found in the footnotes.  The original appeal and/or waiver requests can be found online in the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System under Docket 02-6 (E-Rate), Docket 23-234 (Cyber) or Docket 21-93 (ECF).

One unusual aspect of the December decisions was the denial of twelve waiver requests for late-filed Cybersecurity Pilot Form 471s, including one reportedly filed only 21 minutes after the deadline.  This is a clear indication that the FCC is not applying the same “…14-day grace period that the Commission has established for applications for E-Rate funding” (to quote from one denied waiver request).  In footnotes to its denial decisions, the FCC explained its stricter late-filing waiver policy in the Cyber Pilot Program, stating:

Cybersecurity Pilot participants were provided from March 18, 2025, to September 15, 2025 (i.e., 181 days or six months) to file a Cybersecurity Pilot FCC Form 471, this window is substantially longer than the E-Rate application filing window period. The Petitioners have not provided justification as to why they were not able to file the form within this six-month period, nor have they demonstrated that special circumstances were met to justify extending this deadline.

In other streamlined decisions (DA 26-1) for December, the FCC:

1. E-Rate Dismissed:
   1. One Request for Review dismissed as moot where USAC had already taken the requested action.
   2. Three requests rejected for failure to comply with the FCC’s basic filing requirements.
   3. One Request for Review dismissed to allow an appeal to be filed with USAC.
   4. Eight Petitions for Reconsideration failing to identify any reasons warranting reconsideration.
2. E-Rate Granted:
   1. One Request for Waiver where price was not the primary factor in the bid award, but the applicant had selected the lowest cost supplier.
   2. One Request for Review adjusting a library’s discount rate in line with the local school district’s discount rate.
   3. One Request for Waiver granting an applicant more time to respond to USAC’s request for invoicing information.
   4. One Request for Waiver granting the submission of USAC requested information only a few days late.
   5. Two Requests for Waiver for Form 471 requests filed under the wrong category of service.
   6. One Request for Waiver for a ministerial and clerical  (“M&C “) error citing the wrong FRN.
   7. One Request for Waiver granting a late-filed extension of a service implementation.
   8. One Request for Review to permit the timely submission of a Form 500.
   9. Four Requests for Waiver on service implementation extensions for USAC decisions issued after the invoice filing deadline.
   10. One Request for Waiver of the special construction service delivery deadline.
3. E-Rate Denied:
   1. One Request for Review for a funding request on which no Form 470 had been filed.
   2. One Request for Review for a violation of the 28-day bid selection rule.
   3. Six Requests for Waiver for late-filed Form 471 applications.
   4. One Request for Review for a late-filed Form 486.
   5. Five Requests for Waiver for late-filed invoice deadline extensions.
   6. Seven Requests for Waiver for late-filed appeals or waivers.
4. Cyber Pilot Dismissed:
   1. One Request for Waiver dismissed as moot where USAC had already taken the requested action.
5. Cyber Pilot Denied:
   1. Twelve Requests for Waiver for late-filed CBR Form 471s, appeals or waivers (see discussion above).
6. ECF Granted:
   1. One Request for Review and/or Waiver for the early delivery of equipment.
   2. One Petition for Reconsideration granting a waiver of the ECF invoice filing deadline.
7. ECF Denied:
   1. One Request for Review of an entity deemed ineligible by the state.
   2. Three Requests for Waiver for late-filed invoice deadline extensions.

USAC’s Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program Newsletter dated January 5, 2026, announces the availability of the Cybersecurity Pilot FCC Form 471 Download Tool in Open Data.  Our initial review of the Tool shows that USAC will need to include a few additional date columns to fully alert applicants to all forthcoming deadlines regarding invoicing and annual reports.

To assist on invoicing, USAC has released the following two guides:

• Pilot FCC Form 472 User Guide for BEARs; and
• Pilot FCC Form 474 User Guide for SPIs.

A webinar on Cyber Pilot invoicing will be held on Tuesday, January 27th, at 3 p.m. EDT (register).

USAC’s E-Rate Special Edition News Brief dated January 8, 2026, announces the opening of the FY 2026 Form 471 application filing window on January 21st.  The window will close at 11:59 p.m. EDT on April 1st.  The News Brief notes that:

• First time filers must have established a user account in the E-Rate Productivity Center (“EPC”).
• Entity profiles should be updated during the Administrative Window that closes this coming Friday, January 16th, at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
• FY 2026 is the first year of the new five-year Category Two budgets.
• Competitive bidding, via the filing of a Form 470, should be completed as soon as possible.