SP Conference Call Minutes - August 10, 2005 - Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC)

Minutes for September 14, 2005 Service Provider Call

FUNDING COMMITMENTS

We plan to continue to issue funding commitments each week for both FY2005 and FY2004 applications. Please note that this means that some waves will be smaller if there are fewer applications ready for commitment that week.

FY 2005
Wave 008, 8-17-05: $ 30.923 million
Wave 009, 8-24-05: $ 28.943 million
Wave 010, 9-01-05: $ 31.461 million
Wave 011, 9-08-05: $ 11.671 million
Wave 012, 9-14-05: $ 20.017 million

FY 2004
Wave 029, 8-16-05: $ 7.244 million
Wave 030, 8-23-05: $ .174 million
Wave 031, 9-01-05: $ 16.588 million
Wave 032, 9-06-05: $ 1.368 million
Wave 033, 9-13-05: $ 1.185 million

Internal Connections Commitments for FY2005

We have not yet begun making commitments on Internal Connections funding requests for FY2005.

Outreach

There will be four large training sessions for applicants and service providers:

Washington, DC on September 30
Chicago, IL on October 6
Los Angeles, CA on October 11
Newark, NJ on October 21

There will be four large training sessions for applicants and service providers:

Everyone that receives the Service Provider Conference Call agenda plus all the Form 498 program contacts should have received notice of these trainings by e-mail; registration information was also posted on the web site. We look forward to seeing many of you at these training sessions.

If you were unable to register or had scheduling conflicts, please note that the training presentations will be posted on the web site on September 15. We will also have short recorded WebEx presentations available in the future on topics of interest to applicants and to service providers.

FY2006 Form 471 Filing Window Opening

We plan to open the Form 471 application filing window 60 days after the FCC releases the final version of the Eligible Services List for FY2006, as required in the Third Order (FCC 03-323, ¶ 40). As the final version of the list has not been issued, we do not yet have a firm date for the window opening.

Applicant PINs / Item 21 Attachments

We are moving forward with the development of these two systems, which we described in more detail on our last call.

Briefly, applicants with PINs will be able to certify forms online and not experience the delay of waiting for USAC to data enter their paper certifications.

The online Item 21 attachment system will allow applicants to submit Item 21 attachments online, which again will speed processing of applications.

Eligible Products Database Update

Since the last call, we have signed up several additional manufacturers to participate in this program. We are continuing to accept manufacturers so that we can have a greater number of products available in this database, which should help both applicants and service providers for the FY2006 application process.

Invoicing Update

Upcoming deadlines:

Friday, September 30, 2005 – This is the last date to receive services for many FRNs that feature non-recurring services. If September 30 is the last date to receive services, any requests for service substitutions or SPIN changes on those FRNs must be received or postmarked on or before this date. Service delivery extension requests on those FRNs must also be received or postmarked on or before this date.

Friday, October 28 – In general, this is the last date to invoice for Funding Year 2004 recurring services. (Remember that a late issuance of a Form 486 Notification Letter, for example, can extend this date.)

Monday, October 31 (because October 29 is a Saturday) – This is the deadline for Form 486 if services started on July 1 and an FCDL was issued on or before July 1.

Payments for August were made to 1,676 service providers. This represents 30,796 lines processed totaling $164,569,162. Of these lines, 84% were completed within 7 days and a full 90% were completed within 30 days.

Still in process are 6,771 lines, of which only 2,783 exceed 90 days. The total dollars in process are $247,119,277, of which only $48,573,657 have been in process over 90 days.

Other

No items.

Q.	General Questions Received by E-mail Please explain the criteria SLD uses for determining selection of applications for selective review. Is there a more detailed checklist to avoid this process? Brian Johnson, Datasors Consulting.
A.	Each year, USAC sets the criteria for determining the selection of applications for selective review. The criteria are part of our internal procedures, and as such we cannot share them.

Q.	I have had a few schools and libraries ask if there is a way to complete service certs online? I am new to the program myself and I think that that would be a great way for the schools and library's to get the service cert completed more effectively. Please advise. Sheryl Milstein, AVNET
A.	Service certifications are not required for every invoice nor are they required for every line on an invoice. They are requested by the reviewer when certain criteria warrant a review of the details. The reviewer will note which items require certification. There is not currently an option for applicants to sign and certify these online.

Q.	I feel there's a catch-22 in entering a form 500 contract expiration change. We have a school that has not yet received funding for year 6 - 2003-2004. The contract expiration date on the form 471 is 09/30/2005. According to my understanding of what you've said, we would have to file a form 500 change of the contract expiration date this month- before that date expires. However on the form 500 it says that the date can only be changed to a date "within the funding year or an extension period authorized by the FCC". Currently the funding year expiration is 09/30/2004 and it will remain that way until they are approved. But by then it will be too late to apply for the extension which must be submitted before 09/30/2005. I actually asked this question to the form 500 people - see case 21-297891 but I think their answer - which was that there is no problem - is wrong. Leslie Paryzer, NECQuality.
A.	The key piece of information is that a funding commitment has not yet been issued. When the applicant receives the Funding Commitment Decision Letter, the applicant can then update the contract information for the FRN using a Form 500. The data related to the funding request would not need to be updated until after the funding commitment decision has been made.

REMINDER: PLEASE SEND YOUR QUESTIONS FOR THE NEXT SERVICE PROVIDER CALL USING THE SUBMIT A QUESTION LINK ON THE WEBSITE BY COB ON Friday, October 7, 2005.

PLEASE CHOOSE "SERVICE PROVIDER CONFERENCE CALL" FROM THE TOPIC INQUIRY AND THEN CHOOSE "I WOULD LIKE TO SUBMIT A QUESTION FOR THE CALL" SO THAT YOUR QUESTION IS ROUTED CORRECTLY.

IF YOUR QUESTION IS RELATED TO INVOICING, PLEASE CHOOSE "SERVICE PROVIDER CONFERENCE CALL" AND "I HAVE A PROGRAM QUESTION PERTAINING TO INVOICING" SO THAT YOUR QUESTION IS ROUTED DIRECTLY TO OUR INVOICING TEAM.

ALSO, PLEASE WATCH THE SLD WEBSITE FOR ANY PROGRAM UPDATES.

Content Last Modified: September 19, 2005