A.

Funding Commitments for FY2007

We are still making Priority 2 commitments at the 83% discount level and above and denying at 79% and below. We do not know when we will be able to make decisions on 80%, 81%, or 82%. Here is a list of the FY2007 commitments since the last call:

B.

Service Provider Training

Service provider training will be held on May 8 in Miami and May 14 in Salt Lake City. The Miami training will be followed by an informational presentation on the Rural Health Care Pilot Program.

The Service Provider Training Information page has details on the training, including hotel information and a link to registration.

As of noon today we have 148 registrations for Miami and 68 for Salt Lake City.

C.

Update to Eligibility Table for Non-traditional K-12 Students/Facilities

In some cases, services to Head Start, pre-kindergarten, juvenile justice, and adult education students and/or facilities are eligible for discounts. The Eligibility Table for Non-traditional K-12 Students and Facilities provides information on eligibility on a state-by-state basis. We have recently updated the website guidance on Non-traditional Elementary and Secondary Education to include information on Head Start and added a column to the table to include Head Start eligibility information. You can find this information by clicking on the blue “Schools and Library Applicants” banner on any webpage and going to “Step 1: Determine Eligibility.”

D.

Sample Service Provider Letters on Website

We post sample versions of certain applicant letters in the Letters (Samples) section of the Reference Area. Lately we have started adding sample copies of service provider letters as well for your reference.

We now have sample copies of the following service provider letters:

• Receipt Acknowledgment Letter
• Funding Commitment Decision Letter
• Form 486 Notification Letter
• Form 500 Notification Letter
• Form 472 (BEAR) Notification Letter

E.

Invoicing Update

Payments for the month of March totaled $123,174,502.85 against requests for $161.8 M. In total, 7,932 invoices were processed for 1,423 service providers. This represented 37,324 lines in March with 98% being completed within 30 days.

There are 1,503 lines in process as of March 5.

Invoicing Reminders

• SPAC Forms – Service providers must submit a Service Provider Annual Certification (SPAC) Form 473 for each funding year before USAC can pay invoices for that year. For instance, if you have an FRN for FY2006 with an extended service delivery deadline, then a SPAC for FY2006 must be on file with USAC before USAC can pay an invoice (a SPI Form 474 or a BEAR Form 472) for that or any other FY2006 FRN.
• Invoice Forms – If you choose to file invoices on paper, be sure to use the most current (April 2007) version of the BEAR Form 472 or SPI Form 474. Information submitted on an older version of these forms will have to be re-submitted on the current version before USAC can process the invoice.

Other

No items.

General Questions Received by E-mail

• Based upon the Estimate of Demand for Funding Year 2008 letter dated February 29, 2008 that USAC sent to the FCC, unless the actual demand actually goes down significantly, it does not appear USAC has enough money to fully approve all the Priority Two Internal Connections projects in the 90% discount band. If the demand does not go down enough to fully fund all the 90% IC projects, how will USAC handle this? What are USAC's options?

USAC funds Priority 1 requests first. The first few funding waves each year include only Priority 1 requests. USAC reviews the remaining funding available and the percentage of denials after each wave to determine how much funding is still available.

There are two possible scenarios if funding is not sufficient for Priority 2 requests at a particular discount level:

1. The FCC can roll over unused funds from previous funding years.
2. USAC can partially funding all requests at that discount level. However, USAC has never exercised this option because of the confusion it would cause.

For more information see the program rules – specifically, Section 54.507 – Cap.

• There used to be a site, where you could go in & see Service Provider Conference call minutes. Can you please lead me to this path, so I can look at minutes for conference calls that I was not able to join in on?

Follow the link marked “Outreach and Training” on the left-hand side of any page of the website, then choose “Service Provider Conference Calls.” At the bottom of that page is a list of call dates. Click on a specific date for the agenda for that.

In the upper right-hand corner of the agenda will be a link to the “Call Minutes” for that call. If the link is in the same font and color as the other links, you can click on the link to review the minutes for that call.

• I have a customer who files Service Substitutions for 4 different FRN's. When I called USAC to see if they were approved they told me that they can not provide that information to the Service Provider. How are we to move on with only word from the applicant that it was approved? Not knowing if we will be able to invoice and get paid at a later date?

Also if it was approved where do I see if the Delivery Deadline changed because it was suppose to?

Call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 1—888-203-8100 for the status of a service substitution request. You should have the Form 471 application number and the Funding Request Number (FRN) available.

If a Service Delivery Deadline for an FRN has been changed for any reason, you can find the new deadline in the FRN Extension Table.

• An applicant signed a 3 year contract for 40 MB of Internet access in February of 2008 after waiting 28 days and evaluating bids. The applicant then submitted their Form 471 before the deadline of 2/6/2008.
  
  The applicant has now discovered that they can obtain, from the same service provider, 80 MB of bandwidth for a marginal increase in cost.
  
  Question: Is the applicant allowed to sign a 3 year contract in April or May for the new 80 MB service and be funded in Year 2008? If so, is the Form 470 still "valid" (posted in Nov of 2007 requesting a minimum of 40 MB Internet access)? We understand that the applicant may not ask for an increase in funding in this case, but we are worried that funding would be denied because the contract was signed post-submission of Form 471.
  
  Would the applicant be penalized if an audit occurred at a later date and the auditing firm discovered that the contract was signed after submitting the Form 471?
  
  Perhaps this situation is best handled by a service substitution, which would be fine. If that is the case, then the same questions about which 470 to cite and contracts signed after Form 471 submission still are relevant.

Signing a new contract after the Form 471 has been submitted is not advisable.

1. The competitive bidding process is a cornerstone of the E-rate program, and both applicants and service providers must comply with program rules. If an increase in service cannot be handled by a minor contract modification (in other words, if it is a cardinal change), other service providers would probably want an opportunity to bid on the increased services. In the situation described above, they would not have that opportunity.
2. Signing a contract in the middle of a funding year may cause problems with PIA reviews, invoice reviews, audits, and other program compliance activities.
3. In this situation, a service substitution may not be permitted. Keep in mind the criteria for service substitutions:

• The substituted services or products have the same functionality as the services or products contained in the original proposal.
• The substitution does not violate any contract provisions or state or local procurement laws.
• The substitution does not result in an increase in the percentage of ineligible services or functions.
• The requested change is within the scope of the controlling FCC Form 470, including any Requests for Proposal, for the original service.

• Will the 2008 Service Provider Training be available via webcast this year? If not, will it be available to view later on USAC's website?

We are not planning to do a webcast or to record the training. However, the presentations will be posted on the website in advance of the training and will remain up after the training has been completed.