A.

Funding Commitments for FY2006 and FY2005
 
FY2006

We are issuing funding decisions on Priority 2 requests (Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance) at 88% and above.

Wave 31       11/21/2006       $68.0 million
Wave 32       11/29/2006       $19.3 million
Wave 33       12/05/2006       $59.6 million
Wave 34       12/12/2006       $32.1 million

FY2005

We are issuing funding decisions on Priority 2 requests (Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance) at 81% and denying at 79%. We still don’t know how soon we will be able to issue funding decisions at 80%, but we are actively working with the FCC on this issue.

Wave 64       11/22/2006       $10.6 million

B.

FY2007 Window Update

Each week we are including in the Friday News Brief the number of Forms 470 and 471 posted to date. We have also added a warning on the Schools and Libraries main page that January 10, 2007 is the last day an applicant can post a Form 470 to the website and still be able to post a Form 471 after the required 28-day waiting period but within the window. February 7, 2007 is the last day to post a Form 471 within the window.

C.

Update on Service Provider Training

We are planning to offer two or three sessions of service provider training in March or April 2007. We have gotten some good feedback on issues to consider. If you have any more feedback, please send it to SPTraining@usac.org as soon as you can, preferably by the end of this week.

D.

Invoicing Update / Online BEAR Update

Invoicing Update

Payments for the month of November totaled $156,728,403.04 against requests for $212.3M. In total, 12,595 invoices were processed for 1,855 service providers. This represented 41,472 lines in November with 99% being completed within 30 days and 357 lines over 30 days.

There are currently just over 60 in-process lines over 30 days old out of 735 lines in process.

The recurring services invoice deadline for FY2005 has been extended to January 29, 2007. USAC sent email notifications of this extension to everyone who had FRNs with funds remaining. If you have already invoiced USAC for all eligible funds for an FRN, do not file a new invoice.

Online BEAR Update

The online BEAR form is now live. We have received 476 BEAR Forms online with over 1,000 lines submitted by 251 applicants for certification by 202 service providers. This represents 48% of the BEARs filed in this period and over $4 million in reimbursement requests.

Here are some points to keep in mind:

1. Please log into the E-Cert system to see if you have any BEAR Forms awaiting your approval. You can access the E-Cert system by following the “Form 498” or “Form 499-A” links on the USAC Forms page or the “Certify BEAR Online” link on the Required Forms page. If you are having difficulty with the E-cert system, please contact our customer service group at 1-888-641-8722.
2. Although USAC is sending email notifications, some service providers may not be receiving the notifications due to firewall or spam filter issues. If you would like, you can add no-reply@saic.com to your safe senders list. You can also route the notifications internally by using the routing features of your email program.
3. Please note that this system requires that you approve – either individually or in total – the lines for the invoices you review by checking the appropriate box(es). If you simply click the “Certify” button at the bottom of the BEAR Form without checking the boxes to the right of each line, the system will consider you to have rejected the lines.
4. Do not submit paper copies of any BEAR Forms you certify online. If you wish, you can print and retain paper copies of the forms you review, but it is not necessary to do so. You can always use the Certify BEAR or Bulk Download feature of the online BEAR Form to retrieve historical copies.
5. To access help with the online BEAR Form, click on the Need Help selection at the top of each page. This feature also includes a pictorial diagram of the Online BEAR process.

E.

Other

We now have an index of News Briefs by topic. This list should allows you to find information in past News Briefs more easily. You can access a separate list sorted by date by clicking on the “By Date” tab.

General Questions Received by E-mail

1. In a midwestern state, the regional education consortium (which belongs under the state umbrella) has suggested working with a wireless provider to offer Internet. The school district would provide tower placement on top of their school buildings in exchange for the cost of the E-Rate contribution--meaning that the district or consortium would file for E-Rate, get USAC funds at ~60-70%, and then be subsidized the remaining 30-40% for the rent cost of tower space. The school district/consortium would pay NOTHING for this arrangement. Also this wireless vendor seems to be advertising for reduced consumer rates in the area, due to this "special" school deal.
   
   While I know that this can be filed as a Code 9, it's a state-run consortium that is encouraging these applicants. Can you review the "Free Services Advisory" and how it would fit here? Thanks.
   
   

In general, if you have a concern about a situation, using the Whistleblower or Code 9 process is really the best vehicle to relay information to us about a situation you feel that we should investigate. Remember that (1) we may have additional questions – so if you want to remain anonymous we may not be able to contact you about those questions and that may limit our investigation – and (2) we don’t report back to individual callers on anything we find.

2. Some state networks are asking for Video Over IP on the 470 as a Telecom or Internet Access Service. Is that eligible? Can you explain why or why not? could you give all of us more information about the VoIP decisions?
   

Video over Internet Protocol is not eligible under the Internet Access category of service. However, it can be provided by a telecommunications carrier under the Telecommunications Services category of service.

Here is the definition of Interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol from the FY2007 Eligible Services List:

Interconnected VoIP is defined as a service that (1) enables real-time, two-way voice communications; (2) requires a broadband connection from the user’s location; (3) requires Internet protocol-compatible customer premises equipment (CPE); and (4) permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the public switched telephone network and to terminate calls to the public switched telephone network.

Eligibility for interconnected VoIP is limited to services that connect to the public switched telephone network (i.e., voice services). Therefore, direct connectivity between sites for video interconnectivity remains ineligible in the Internet Access category of service.

3. We have data circuit service we provide to schools via ATT and are having our customers sign an early termination agreement that states if they disconnect the circuit prior to 15 months there will be an early termination charge of $1500.  This is an ATT policy and charge.  Would this be considered a contract for 470 application purposes?
   

Generally, contracts have Terms and Conditions, prices, and descriptions of services. However, state contract laws vary from state to state, and we would look to the definition of a contract in that particular state if we had to review the document in question.

4. There has been some confusion regarding the proper time line that an applicant should follow in preparing their technology plan.
   
   It is my understanding that when an applicant is using their technology plan as the basis for their 470 Form, then that technology plan must be complete (that is cover all five required criteria) and include the services requested on the 470 Form (above and beyond basic phone service). It is also my understanding that minor changes may be made to the technology plan after the Form 470 is submitted.
   
   Does the SLD require that this technology plan, used as a basis for the applicant's Form 470 be approved by any entity (state education agency or school board) before the 470 is posted? If the applicant had the plan notarized before the Form 470 was posted would this provide enough documentation to prove the plan was written and complete at the time the 470 was filed?
   

The technology plan must be written (created) before the Form 470 is filed. There is no approval requirement at that point from USAC, although applicants should follow any locally mandated approval procedures. We suggest that applicants keep a copy of the plan with the creation date somewhere on the document, so that they can demonstrate if requested that the plan was created at the appropriate time. There can certainly be minor changes to the plan after it is created; major changes may affect the service requests.

The plan must be approved by a USAC-certified Technology Plan Approver before the Form 486 is filed or services start, whichever is earlier.

5. Can an applicant refer to a 470/associated contract of another city/county/jurisdiction (other than state) instead of posting their own 470?  IE.  if county procurement allows School District A to buy off of School District B's contracts; can School District B forgo issuing a 470 and rather just contract and submit a 471 based on the 470 issues/contracted by School District A?

The Form 470 asks for a description of both the entities receiving service and a list of the Billed Entities (Items 16 and 17). If School District A is not authorized to open a procurement on behalf of School District B, School District B should file its own Form 470 and then consider the contract signed by School District A as a bid which it can evaluate, if it is allowed to do so. If, however, School District A is the consortium leader for all school districts in the area (or otherwise authorized to open and run a procurement for other entities) and School District A includes School District B in Items 16 and 17 on its Form 470, School District B can cite School District A’s Form 470 on its Form 471 funding request.