Minutes from the Wednesday Service Provider Conference Call
January 29, 2003

INTRODUCTION OF NEW DIRECTOR OF SERVICE PROVIDER SUPPORT

We are pleased to announce that Cynthia Schultz has joined USAC as Director of Service Provider Support for SLD. For the time being, John Noran will continue to host the Service Provider call, and Ms. Schultz will attend.

FORM 471 DEADLINE FOR FUNDING YEAR 2003

Reminder: The deadline for the Funding Year 2003 Form 471 application filing window is Thursday, February 6, 2003 at 11:59 PM EST.

INVOICE DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUEST

The deadline for postmark or receipt of invoices for non-recurring services for Funding Request Numbers (FRNs) for ALL funding years with a September 30, 2002 delivery deadline and for which a Form 486 has been certified is generally January 28, 2003. If you need to apply for an invoicing deadline extension you may do so following the guidance in the Invoicing Deadlines and Extension Requests posted in the Reference Area of this web site. There is currently no deadline for submitting invoicing extension requests, although we are moving to establish such a deadline.

SERVICE PROVIDER CERTIFICATIONS (FORM 473) TO BE REQUIRED FOR BEARs (FORM 472)

Invoices received by the SLD after February 28, 2003 will not be paid unless the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) has a Service Provider Annual Certification Form 473 (SPAC) on file for the funding year associated with the invoice. Invoices include both the Service Provider Invoice Form 474 (SPI) and the Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement Form 472 (BEAR). While BEARs may have been processed without regard to the presence of a SPAC from the service provider, that practice will be discontinued.

SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES PERFORMANCE GOALS FOR PROCESSING FORMS

Following are some of the SLD's performance goals for unprocessed forms. For each goal, some forms may not be processed within the stated timeframe if they fall into one of the excluded categories mentioned after the goal:

February 20, 2003 - Issue FCDLs for earlier funding years (FY1999, FY2000, and FY2001) that are not held for unresolved policy issues.
March 10, 2003 - Issue FCDLs for Funding Year 2002 that are not held for unresolved policy issues or Selective Review information gathering.
April 15, 2003 - Reach and maintain a 90-day turn around on the issuance of Administrator's Decision Letters on appeals, and thereafter a 30-day turnaround on the issuance of Revised FCDLs for meritorious appeals.
June 30, 2003 - Issue FCDLs for 80% of all in-window applications for Funding Year 2003 that are not held for unresolved processing, application review or policy issues.
Reach and maintain a 60-day turnaround on requests for service substitutions, SPIN Changes, service delivery extensions, and invoicing deadline extensions, unless delayed by a wait for applicant/service provider information to be returned.
Reach and maintain a 20-day turnaround on invoices, unless delayed by a wait for applicant/service provider information to be returned.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q	How often and on what days are electronic RALs issued?
A	Electronic notifications for RALs are issued every day.

Q	Can service providers assist with the Form 471?
A	Yes, service providers can assist applicants with their Forms 471, but only after the competitive bidding process - including vendor selection - has been completed. Applicants are still responsible for the certifications they make on the form.

Q	Why are you conducting reviews and requesting info for Funding Year 2003 when Funding Year 2002 is not completed yet?
A	We are reviewing applications for Funding Year 2003 as they are received to minimize delays in making funding commitments. The personnel trained to perform selective reviews (which currently affect FY 2002 applications) are not the same personnel who perform initial reviews on new applications, and both groups are working simultaneously to get as many reviews done as quickly as possible.

Q	When can we expect you to start issuing funding commitments for Funding Year 2003?
A	We have not yet set a start date for issuing FY 2003 commitments.

Q	If an applicant forgot to put cost information on the Form 471, what should the applicant do?
A	The applicant should file a new Form 471 with the complete information and cancel the first Form 471.

Q	If I haven't received an answer back from an e-mail I sent to the "serviceprovider" e-mail address, how much time should I allow before resending?
A	Two weeks. Many questions can be answered within a day or two, but more complex questions may take longer.

Q	How many more waves can we expect for Funding Year 2002?
A	We don't know, but we are working hard to complete the review process and issue funding commitments. We will continue to issue a wave every two weeks.

Q	What portion of the uncommitted funds for Funding Year 2002 will be committed to Internal Connections funding requests?
A	While we must make various assumptions to provide an estimated figure, we expect it will be about $600 million.

Content Last Modified: May 1, 2003