Application Window: The Form 471 application window for FY 2026 opened Wednesday, January 21st, and will close on Wednesday, April 1st, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. The administrative window, which gave applicants the opportunity to update their EPC entity profiles, closed January 16th. Any subsequent entity changes, during the window period, will have to be made as RAL corrections or updated during application reviews.
E-Rate for FY 2025:
USAC issued Wave 43 for FY 2025 on Thursday, February 26th, for $4.83 million. Total funding for FY 2025 is now $2.57 billion. Currently, USAC has funded 97.3% of submitted applications, representing 88.3% of the dollars requested.
Following the formal determination of the ineligibility of hotspots for FY 2025 (see our newsletter of January 26th), Wave 43 included the denial of over 890 hotspot FRNs totaling $50 million. USAC denied all FY 2025 bus Wi-Fi FRNs in December (see our newsletter of December 22nd).
Cybersecurity Pilot Program:
USAC released Wave 3 of Cyber Pilot funding totaling just under $21 million. Current Cyber funding after three waves is $49.8 million. The next funding wave is expected later in March.
The State E-Rate Coordinators’ Alliance (“SECA”) has petitioned the FCC to extend the Service Delivery Deadline (“SDD”) for the Cybersecurity Pilot Program to permit applicants to receive a full three years of discounts on services initiated after receipt of their Funding Commitment Decision Letters (“FCDLs”). Under the present Cyber rules, the SDD for such services is exactly three years from applicants' FCDL dates. Typically, for applicants waiting until funding is committed to initiate services, it may take at least a month or two for suppliers to get new Cyber services up and running. Thus, under the current rule, applicants cannot receive Cyber discounts on a full 36 months of service. The SECA filing asks the FCC to amend the rule to provide at least 90 days after receiving an FCDL (or revised FCDL) for an applicant to commence discounted services.
We encourage other Cyber applicants, service providers, and interested parties to support SECA’s initiative by filing comments or “Express” comments in Docket 23-234.