About USAC
About USAC:
- USAC Overview
- Universal Service Fund
- Governance
- Leadership
- Success Stories
- Resource Room
- Site Visits
- USAC FCC Filings
About USAC Tools:
Site Visit Program
As a part of its outreach initiative, USAC conducts site visits to various Universal Service Fund (USF) recipients throughout the programs.
USAC Site Visit Outreach
In January 2005, USAC began the site visit program as an opportunity to see USF support in use, observe best practices in the field, assess the need for outreach and education efforts, and ensure that program funds are being used in compliance with regulatory requirements. The program initially started with the Schools and Libraries Program; however, in the fall of 2006, the program expanded to the High Cost Program and a new component was added to the Schools and Libraries site visits infrastructure called HATS (Helping Applicants to Succeed).
In 2007, the site visits initiative will expand ever further into the Rural Health Care and Low Income Programs. The Rural Health Care site visits are set to begin in April while, the Low Income visits will begin in May. In total, USAC has conducted nearly 2,000 site visits between the programs.
USAC selects a range of USF recipient sites to visit each month. The process used in selecting potential sites is based on specific criterions that have been outlined for the four USF programs. The site involved in the visit is given advanced notice as to their perspective visit and informed of any documentation that will need to be made available for the site reviewer. The site visit links to the right contain helpful information about the site visits initiative for all four programs.
BearingPoint, Inc. has been the company selected to conduct these visits on behalf of USAC. BearingPoint will interview individuals at the participant site to get a better sense of their experiences, examine pertinent documentation and/or facilities, and solicit feedback on how USAC can better serve recipients of USF support.
