Minutes for June 2, 2004 Service Provider Call

IMPORTANT REMINDER—NEXT CALL WILL TAKE PLACE AT 3:00PM ON TUESDAY JUNE 29, 2004

FUNDING COMMITMENTS

A reminder that service providers can view funding commitments online.

FY2002
FY2002 - Letters in Wave 30K were issued on June 1, 2004, commitments in this Wave totaled $2.2 Million. Total commitments for FY2003 are now $2.194 Billion.
FY2003
FY2003 - Letters in Wave 29 were issued on May 18, 2004 commitments in this Wave totaled $29 million. Letters in Wave 30 were issued on June 2, 204; commitments in this Wave totaled $14.8 million. Total commitments for FY2003 are now $2,557 billion.
FY2004
FY2004 - Letters in Wave 2 were issued on May 11, 2004, commitments in this Wave totaled $24.2 million. Letters in Wave 3 were issued on May 26, 2004; commitments in this Wave totaled $39.3 million. Total commitments for FY2004 are now $100.4 million

ELIGIBLE PRODUCTS DATABASE PILOT PROGRAM UPDATE

Manufacturers can now enroll in SLD’s Eligible Products Database pilot program.

Manufacturers who have completed the enrollment process will soon be able to start uploading data to the pilot program. We expect this upload function to be available no later than July 1, 2004.

For more information about the eligible products database pilot program, please click here or follow the new link under the topic heading “Service Providers” on the left-hand side of this web page.

We encourage you to contact your manufacturers of e-rate eligible internal connection products and inform them of this opportunity.

C.	INVOICING UPDATE Payments in excess of $95,348k were processed in May. Lines processed were over 27,600. Of these, 84% were paid within 30 days and 94% were within 120 days. These payments went to 1,434 SPINs.

SERVICE PROVIDER TRAINING UPDATE

SLD now has added a Training and Outreach bar to its web site. It can be found on the left side under Overview. The three links found under Training and Outreach are WebEx recordings, Training presentations, and Submit a Question link to our online submit a question page. When you click on the WebEx Recordings, you will see the topics that are currently available for viewing as well as hyperlinks to (1) SLD’s WebEx site, (2) instructions on how to register for a live training session, and (3) instructions on how to view a recording.

SUBMIT A QUESTION ONLINE

On our last Service Provider conference, it was brought to our attention that many service providers were having difficulty submitting questions online. We have looked into the problem and noted that we had an internal glitch in our system that has now been corrected. I am hopeful that this will resolve many of the issues. In an effort to assist you better and to track these types of error issues, we have added a help button to our "Submit A Question Online" page. By following the instructions that appear on that page, you will enable us to better troubleshoot the different reasons for the error messages and resolve the problems.

RENEGOTIATION OR COST ALLOCATION OF CONTRACTS THAT CONTAIN MORE THAN BASIC MAINTENANCE

Existing technical support contracts that contain more than basic maintenance must be either renegotiated or cost allocated by June 9, 2004. For more information, please see the May 27 Headline posting on the main page of the SLD web site titled Renegotiation or Cost Allocation of Contracts that Contain More than Basic Maintenance.

G.	MISCELLANEOUS UPDATES TO THE WEBSITE A number of documents on the SLD web site have been updated recently. For more information on those updates, please see the May 28 Headline posting on the main page of the SLD web site titled Miscellaneous Updates to Web Site.

EARLY FILERS OF FCC FORM 470 FOR FY2005

The Important Notice for early filers of Forms 470 originally posted on May 6 has been revised. For more information, please see the June 3 Important Notice posting on the main page of the SLD web site titled Revised Notice to Applicants and Service Providers: Early Filers of FCC Form 470 for Funding Year 2005. Please note that information is included for service providers who wish to limit their searches to Forms 470 posted after a certain date

I.	OTHER Congressional hearing on waste, fraud, and abuse in the E-rate program is scheduled for June 9, 2004 (rescheduled for June 17, 2004). The case study will focus on Puerto Rico. George McDonald, V.P. SLD will be testifying.

GENERAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS RECEIVED BY E-MAIL

Q.	I have heard that the SLD is considering requiring applicants to submit one Funding Request for each contract they have with their provider. Please advise if SLD is considering this, and if so, will SLD discuss the ramifications and expectations of this requirement with those who will be affected by this change prior to making it effective? Stephanie Beavers, Verizon

R.	This is not true.

Q.	A school has submitted a Form 472 where part of the reimbursement amount pertains to a former Service Provider. How should the applicant apply for reimbursement for the portion that pertains to the former Service Provider as well as the new Service Provider? Tammy Smith, Cingular

R.	If an applicant changes service providers during the funding year they must submit a SPIN Change request to SLD. The instructions on how to do this are found in the Reference Area on the USAC Website. Please note that there are two methods to follow 1) Corrective SPIN Changes and 2) Operational SPIN Changes. The reasons and instructions for submission are listed in the website guidance. After the applicant receives SPIN Change Authorization a new Form 486 might need to be filed after which a new Form 472 may be submitted.

Q.	We have consistently experienced delays of more than 90 days between our e-invoice and receiving the $$ in our account. What steps can we take to shorten those delays? Richard Senturia, Central Business Communications

R.	A prompt response to any inquiries and detailed descriptions on invoices submitted contribute to a shortened time to review.

Q.	Is there any chance that the list could be expanded to include email/Web hosting products? There are a lot of ASPs out there whose products may be partially or totally eligible, but do not know the eligibility of their products, and have no way to find it out until an applicant submits an application. Dan Riordan, On-Tech

R.	First, a service provider is encouraged to be familiar with our eligible services list. Second, if you have a question with respect to a particular product, please submit your inquiry on line and it can be reviewed by our services team. Of course, it is important to know that SLD does not provide pre-approval for any of the products. Third, the FCC, in its 3rd Report and Order, stated that it would make the eligible services list available to the public for comment this year. This is an opportunity for you to provide your comments to the FCC.

Q.	I understand that schools and libraries are allowed to post 470's for funding year 2005, because of long procurement procedures put in place by the individual states. Is there a way to search those 470's without going through all of the 2004 470 postings? Nicholas Gatto, Achieve telecom Network

R.	Service providers may search by date on the Form 470 search page by choosing the criteria application completed on or after date (mm/dd/yyy). You can find this page by clicking on Apply Online and choosing Search Posted under the Form 470.

Q.	Some of the service providers have recently experienced 474 applications being refused for payment due to a non-recurring cap limit being exceeded. Would it be possible for USAC to state in writing their policy regarding administering cap limits by separate recurring and non-recurring categories? We are reluctant to discontinue the manual processes we have put in place to track the limits separately by FRN without some kind of written policy statement from USAC. Thank you. Pam Brenner, Qwest

R.	This was noted earlier in May. This was reviewed and it was found that new invoice review team members had misunderstood this program classification. This should be corrected by training. For those whose invoices were denied, please submit a new invoice to request a reconsideration of the eligible items.

Q.	I've recently received two request from USAC to provide check payment copies (front and back) for two applicants during the 2003-2004 funding year - FRN xxx and FRN xxx - I've have no problems providing a customers account payment history from our billing system. I think is a great audit point for the program, but my larger concern is why USAC is requesting check copies from the service provider, this is not information that is readily available, and I don't understand why the payment history from their account isn't acceptable. The payment history give all the detail regarding the payment, payment type, check or credit card, date, $ amount etc. This will take a tremendous amount of coordination with customers. We have a hard enough time trying to coordinate their discount type, let alone retrieve check payment copies. Christina Halley, Nextel

R.	The service provider is requested to obtain these for invoices they submit. This is to verify compliance with a basic program rule. A continuing program integrity concern is that service providers have not required the applicant to pay their share or even arrange other methods to avoid payment. This violates the FCC regulations. The payment verification procedure operates the same as does the service certification procedure. The service provider’s interest is in getting prompt payment and thus they have the incentive to expedite this request. Payment information may become a part of the service certification form.

Q.	Why would a school receive a "Resource Deficiency Advisory" Letter? Bonnie Overweg, Dakota Academic

R.	An applicant receives this letter as a result of a selective review if some of the applicant responses to SLD requests for information are found to be deficient.

Q.	Will the Funding Year 2003 basic maintenance contract changes and cost allocations resulting from the FCC Third Report & Order be put on the "fast track" for review to be done before Funding Year 2004 applications? Tony Wening, IBM

R.	No, we will be reviewing these contract changes as part of our FY2004 application review processes.

REMINDER: PLEASE E-MAIL YOUR QUESTIONS FOR THE SERVICE PROVIDER CALL TO THE CUSTOMER SERVICE BUREAU BY COB ON FRIDAY JUNE 25, 2004. PLEASE REMEMBER TO WRITE, “QUESTION FOR SERVICE PROVIDER CALL” IN THE SUBJECT LINE SO THAT YOUR QUESTION IS ROUTED CORRECTLY. ALSO, PLEASE WATCH THE SLD WEBSITE FOR ANY PROGRAM UPDATES.

Content Last Modified: June 21, 2004