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E-Rate Weekly News Brief
September 7, 2007
TIP OF THE WEEK: Respond promptly to Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) requests for information. Remember that Summer Deferrals end on September 10, 2007 and you must provide requested information within 15 days.
SL News Brief Starts Its Third Year
Welcome to the third year of the Schools and Libraries News Brief. We will continue to provide you with up-to-the-minute news on developments in the Schools and Libraries program along with guidance materials that will help both applicants and service providers through the application process.
We email SL News Briefs to subscribers on Fridays. If you are not receiving your own copy of the News Brief, we encourage you to subscribe. You can also download a copy of any issues you miss from the Schools and Libraries News Brief page, which you can view by topic or by date.
Commitments for Funding Year 2007
Funding Year 2007. USAC will release FY2007 Wave 19 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) September 11. This wave will include commitments for approved Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance requests at 83% and above. As of September 7, FY2007 commitments total just over $1.26 billion.
On the day after the FCDLs are mailed, you can check to see if you have a commitment by using USAC’s Automated Search of Commitments tool.
Getting Ready to Get Ready for FY2008
No, the headline is not a typo. Although we are only a few months away from the opening of the FY2008 Form 471 application filing window, many applicants and service providers should think first about cleaning up any remaining issues from past funding years. Below are some questions you should ask yourself even before you start preparing for FY2008.
Have I invoiced USAC for all FY2006 recurring services?
In general, the invoicing deadline for FY2006 recurring services is October 29, 2007 – less than two months from now. Many applicants and service providers wait until the last minute to prepare the final invoice (BEAR Form 472 or SPI Form 474) for FY2006, which then means notification letters are delayed because of the sudden and large influx of forms that USAC must process and review.
Why not get your paperwork together and invoice USAC now? Here are some things to remember:
Have I received – or delivered and installed – all eligible non-recurring services?
September 30 following the funding year is generally the deadline for delivery and installation of non-recurring services. While September 30, 2007 is the deadline for most FY2006 non-recurring services, it can also be the extended deadline for services from other funding years.
Again, here are some things to remember:
Have I submitted my FY2007 Form 486?
If your FY2007 FCDL is dated on or before July 1, 2007, your deadline to file Form 486 (instructions) is probably October 29, 2007. (About two-thirds of the FRNs for a funding year feature July 1 as the service start date, which this year results in an October 29 Form 486 deadline.) As above, many applicants wait until the last minute to file Form 486, causing delays in processing and review at USAC.
Moreover, applicants that wait until the last minute are likely to get confused by USAC’s Form 486 reminder letter. USAC now sends out reminder letters to applicants that miss the Form 486 deadline because they either:
USAC uses the FCDL date and the service start date reported in Item 19 of the Form 471 (instructions) to determine when a reminder letter should be sent. USAC tries to identify late filers as soon as possible after the calculated Form 486 filing deadline date so that Forms 486 can be filed or certified promptly. This means that applicants that wait until the last minute to file or certify a form will probably receive one of these letters and become concerned that USAC has not received their form or their certification. Timely filing mitigates this.
Once you have asked yourself these questions and come up with appropriate actions or answers, it’s time to start thinking about FY2008. Future News Briefs will walk you through the application process from start to finish.
Fall Training Update
As you can see from the list below, USAC’s “Back to the New Basics” fall training starts next week. Several of the host cities still have space and hotel rooms available. The figures below are current as of 9:00 a.m. today.
Once a session has reached 250 registrants, USAC starts a waiting list. If you find that you cannot attend a session after you have registered, please remember to cancel your registration to open a slot for someone else.
You can put your name on a waiting list even though a training session is full. However, we recommend picking a second-choice training session and registering for that as well in case your first choice remains unavailable.
Remember also that registering with USAC for the training does not automatically reserve a hotel room. You must follow the hotel reservation instructions linked to the training session you want to attend in order to make a hotel reservation at the conference room rate.
REMINDER: Beginners sessions are limited to true beginners – those program participants with less than two years’ experience with E-rate. Beginners will receive an invitation by email to attend the beginners session at their registered training.
If you have questions, you can direct them to usactraining@usac.org or call: 410-757-0905.
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T: 888-964-2227
D: 989-753-2424
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515 N Washington Ave
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D: 989-753-2424
F: 989-753-2655
E: micta@mictatech.org
515 N Washington Ave
Suite 405
Saginaw, MI 48607
