May 24, 2019
TIP OF THE WEEK: If your Funding Year (FY) 2018 fiber project includes special construction charges, you must have completed your special construction in time for the fiber to be lit (or for a self-provisioned network involving another technology to be used) by June 30, 2019. Refer to last week's SL News Brief if your construction was unavoidably delayed and you need to request an extension, which you must request on or before June 30, 2019.
Commitments for Funding Year 2019
Funding Year 2019. USAC released FY2019 Wave 5 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on May 23. As of May 24, FY2019 commitments total over $754 million.
On the date that FCDLs are issued, you can access your FCDL notification from the Notifications section of your landing page in the E-rate Productivity Center (EPC).
Registration for Summer 2019 Service Provider Training Opens
Earlier this week, USAC opened registration for service provider training. The training will be held at USAC's offices in Washington DC and include content of particular interest to service providers who participate in the E-rate Program.
There will be two training sessions, each covering the same material:
Monday, August 5 – Optional beginner training starting at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 6 – All-day training with some beginner and advanced breakout sessions
Thursday, August 8 – Optional beginner training starting at 12:30 p.m. Friday, August 9 – All-day training with some beginner and advanced breakout sessions
When you register for the training, you will also be able to indicate your interest in participating in training and other informational sessions for the High Cost, Lifeline, and Rural Health Care Programs and the Contributors section. These sessions will be held on Wednesday, August 7, between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. EDT. We will provide a final schedule for these Wednesday sessions within the next few weeks, based on the number of attendees who express a desire to participate.
If you are interested in participating on Wednesday, we encourage you to register for the E-rate training but consider waiting to make travel plans until we can provide a detailed Wednesday schedule.
Update on Fall 2019 Applicant Training
We are working on finalizing dates and locations for the applicant training sessions. We expect to hold these sessions in Washington DC and in six locations around the country during the months of September, October, and November of 2019.
Unlike the service provider training, these sessions contain material specifically targeted to applicants.
EPC Deployment News
We would like to call your attention to three changes that occurred during our most recent deployment to EPC. All three affect EPC review processes.
Applicants and their consultants will receive an additional reminder that responses to Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) questions are due. Applicants have 15 days to respond to questions posed by USAC during the PIA review process, and PIA sends reminders to applicants who have not submitted their responses (or submitted incomplete responses). Applicants will now receive reminders after seven days, 12 days, and 15 days of no response.
The subject lines of PIA no-response reminders now contain the FCC Form 471 number and the Billed Entity Number (BEN). This additional information will help users identify the specific form and BEN more quickly so they can locate the unanswered questions.
Applicants can forward their PIA and post-commitment review questions to all the appropriate users – applicants, service providers, and consultants. If applicants need assistance in responding to PIA or post-commitment review questions, they can forward their questions to the other users who can assist them. Those users now also have the ability to add information or responses to the questions and then return them to the applicant.
Service Providers: File Your FY2019 SPAC Form
The FCC Form 473, Service Provider Annual Certification (SPAC) Form, must be filed each year by service providers that participate in the E-rate Program. This form must be certified and on file with USAC before USAC can pay invoices – FCC Form 472, Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement (BEAR) Form and FCC Form 474, Service Provider Invoice (SPI) Form.
USAC has added FY2019 as an option to the online SPAC Form. We encourage service providers to log in to the E-File System and complete and certify the SPAC Form for FY2019. Note that service providers with multiple Service Provider Identification Numbers (SPINs) must file a SPAC Form for each SPIN.
To certify your SPAC Form, first log in to the E-File System. If you do not have a username and password or are having trouble logging in, call us at (888) 641-8722 and choose option 4 (Contributors) for assistance.
If you have multiple SPINs, you must choose one of them ("set your SPIN") from the list of your SPINs.
After you set your SPIN, you will see SPAC Form as an option in the left-hand menu.
The form will pre-populate much of the information required based on your identity as a user. If you notice that the contact information in your E-File System profile (not your EPC profile) does not populate correctly, you can exit the FCC Form 473, correct your E-File profile information, and then re-enter your form.
The dropdown in the form that lists funding years will only show funding years for which a SPAC Form has not yet been filed, making your choice easier.
Immediately after the SPAC Form is certified for any funding year, the appropriate funding year will appear in the Search for SPIN Information tool.
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