A.

Revised Date for 2008 Service Provider Calls

Starting in January 2008, we are moving the service provider call to the first Wednesday of each month. If you have questions for the January 2, 2008 call, please send them through Submit a Question by 5:00 p.m. on December 28, 2007.

B.

Funding Commitments for FY2007

We are still making Priority 2 commitments at the 83% discount level and above. Here is a list of the FY2007 commitments since the last call:

Wave     FCDL Date      Amount

029      11/20/2007     $16.8 M
030      11/27/2007     $ 7.0 M
031      11/29/2007     $ 8.9 M
032      12/4/2007      $13.7 M
033      12/11/2007     $27.7 M

You can find information on commitments by using the Automated Search of Commitments tool on the USAC website.

Remember that we are posting information on appeal waves and prior year waves for each month in the Applicant Conference Call section of the Outreach and Training webpage.

C.

Form 470 Download Tools

Applicants are continuing to post Forms 470 to the USAC website. You can use the Form 470 Search Posted tool to review individual forms or the Form 470 Download Reports tool to download a comma-delimited file with information from multiple forms. If you have any technical difficulties using these tools, please notify the Client Service Bureau at 1-888-203-8100.

Remember that the last day for applicants to post a Form 470 is January 10, 2008. Applicants who post a Form 470 after that date will not be able to wait the necessary 28 days before selecting a service provider, signing a contract, and signing and submitting a Form 471 by the window close deadline of February 7, 2008.

D.

Service Provider Training (Spring 2008)

We are planning to hold two service provider training sessions in April 2008 – one in the East and one in the West. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for locations, subjects to cover, etc.

E.

Invoicing Update

Payments for the month of November totaled $170,811,335.96 against requests for $258.4 M. In total, 12,289 invoices were processed for 1,949 service providers. This represented 40,510 lines in November with 98% being completed within 30 days.

There are 989 lines in process as of December 12.

Service Certifications

Service certifications may be requested during an invoice review. Using a service certification, applicants can confirm the amounts on Service Provider Invoice (SPI) Forms and verify that the invoiced services were delivered.

Service certifications apply to the invoice being reviewed, not the customer bill. If an invoice is being re-submitted, the applicant must complete a new service certification; USAC will not accept the previously filed service certification for the re-submitted invoice.

Other – USAC and CSB Holiday Close Dates

USAC, PIA (application and invoice review), and CSB are all closed on Monday, December 24; Tuesday, December 25; and Tuesday, January 1.

General Questions Received by E-mail

1. Could USAC change the way they request "multi-year" contracts in the future? Either make a pop-up when applicants check 7b "yes, I might sign a contract" with "will you entertain multi-year" so that they MUST check the box OR don't have a multi-year box on a new 470 form. Many applicants seem to be making that mistake.

In the past, applicants had to remember to put this information in one of two open text boxes (what are now Items 13a and 13b concerning state or local restrictions on bidding procedures and additional services for future years). The check boxes on the current Form 470 are a great improvement. We have reservations about forcing applicants to opt out of checking a box, but we can look at putting a pop-up on this item for FY2009 that reminds applicants of the possible consequences of not checking these boxes.