• Warning: PY1 BEARs due at SLD by December 15
• Identifying or appealing "black hole" FCDLs
• Approaching deadline for Form 470
• Pre-submission data entry for Form 471
• New Eligibility List available

The following is a summary of the E-rate News for the Week of December 6, 1999, prepared by E-Rate Central. Official SLD news appears in the "What’s New!" section of the SLD’s web site. Additional information and interpretations appear elsewhere on this web site.

Warning: PY1 BEARs due at SLD by December 15

Schools and libraries still seeking discount reimbursements on bills for PY1 are reminded that BEAR forms must be received by the SLD on or before Wednesday, December 15, 1999. Since BEARs must be acknowledged by the vendors (who must complete page 4) before submission, the forms must completed and faxed to the vendors for acknowledgment no later than Monday. If the vendors can fax back the completed acknowledgments within a day (and some are being swamped with requests), then BEARs can be express mailed to the SLD on Tuesday.

Applicants experiencing difficulty obtaining vendor acknowledgments for their BEARs should document their attempts and call the SLD help line (888-203-8100) for further assistance.

The SLD has indicated, informally, that grace periods for BEAR form submissions will be granted to applicants who are still awaiting formal funding commitments for successful PY1 appeals or who have only recently received additional "black hole" funding (see below). FCC action is needed (and expected) to formalize the grace periods.

Identifying or appealing "black hole" FCDLs

In mid-November, the SLD began sending out revised Funding Commitment Decisions Letters ("FCDLs") for PY1. The new FCDLs include 6 additional months of funding on certain telecommunications and Internet contracts which, as listed on original Form 471s, had been set to expire before 12/31/98 (creating the so-called "black hole" when the end date for PY1 was changed from 12/31/98 to 6/30/99). Applicant requests for additional funding, for contracts that had been extended through 6/30/99, had to have been made last summer by filing amended Form 486s. The revised FCDLs have caused some confusion among both applicants and vendors.

One source of confusion is that the revised FCDLs look quite similar to both the original PY1 FCDLs and to the new FCDLs released this fall for PY2. Revised FCDLs can be identified and interpreted as follows:

Although vendors presumably have been sent revised funding information as well, our experience is that some either are not aware of the "black hole" funding process or have not captured the increased funding caps in their billing databases. Some explanation may be required by applicants seeking BEAR form acknowledgments.

Applicants receiving revised FCDLs need to check that extended funding was correctly calculated and/or applied to all eligible FRNs. If not – and if the additional funding due is significant and can actually be used to cover PY1 bills – "black hole" decisions can be appealed to the SLD if submitted within the standard 30-day appeal window (see "Tip" above to document start of the window period).

So far, at least, the SLD has not notified applicants who were denied requests for additional funding. Applicants expecting, but not receiving, revised FCDLs can also appeal. The recommended approach is to first call the SLD help line (888-203-8100) to check on the current funding status of specific FRNs. Our experience is that help line personnel do not have access to data indicating that extended funding has or has not been made, but that they can provide total funding numbers (for comparison with the original FCDL amounts). Since these SLD decisions to deny are not dated, it is not clear if there is any deadline for appeal; any needed appeals should be filed as soon as possible after an apparent denial is determined.

Approaching deadline for Form 470

Applicants planning to file Form 471s within the PY3 application window for tariff, month-to-month, and new contract services, must first file a Form 470 and have it posted on the SLD web site for 28 days. With the Form 471 application window closing January 19, the last day that an application can be express mailed to the SLD is January 18 (assuming no problems with next-day delivery). Allowing for the 28-day waiting period for contract signing and Form 471 submission, this makes December 21 the last possible day for posting a Form 470. In all cases, it is strongly recommended that applicants not wait until the last day.

At this point in December, applicants who have not yet filed a Form 470 should do so online, not by mail. For Form 470s submitted online, the 28-day posting period begins when the final button is clicked (even though the signed signature page must subsequently be mailed to the SLD). On the other hand, Form 470s mailed to the SLD are not considered posted until data entry is completed. SLD data entry could easily take two weeks; a posting date later than December 21 will make it impossible to submit a valid Form 471 within the application window.

Pre-submission data entry for Form 471

Like a Form 470, a Form 471 can also be entered on line. But there is one critical difference. The effective date of submission of an online Form 471 is not when the final button is clicked, but when the signed certification page, together with all necessary attachments, is submitted to the SLD. To meet the Form 471 application window deadline, therefore, the signature page and attachments must be received by the SLD by 11:59 p.m. on January 19, 2000. Applicants applying online on January 19 should be prepared to fly to Kansas to deliver the rest of their application materials.

Because of the amount of information required in a Form 471, online applicants may wish to begin the online data entry process early, even before the 28-day Form 470 posting period is complete. This is not a problem as long as the online form is not finalized before the Form 470 Allowable Contract Date. Online entry requires the completion of a number of data screens, each of which is saved (and can be modified) from one online session to the next. The key to returning to a partially completed Form 471 online is the Form 471 Application Number that is automatically assigned after the first entry screen is completed.

New Eligibility List available

A revised Eligibility List was posted on the SLD web site last Monday. It can be downloaded in PDF format and printed. The List includes a number of equipment and service items, briefly describes each, flags the eligibility of each as "Yes," "No," or "Conditional," and provides some reference citations to FCC orders and/or other sources. The new List is again an improvement over the older versions, but still has many of limitations discussed in last week’s news.

New entries in this revised list are highlighted in bold type. Some examples of new entries in eligible categories include DS-1/T-1 lines, satellite service, communications servers, Ethernet modules, and web servers. New entries in ineligible categories include video amplifiers, cable modems, CD towers, DVDs, online public access catalog systems, remote access servers, spare parts, e-mail account fees, Internet filtering, voice messaging, and electronic libraries.

One interesting addition, listed as conditional, is a "web site creation fee." As explained, the service is eligible when bundled (as a presumably minor part) with basic Internet access at no cost to the user, but is ineligible if listed separately with an associated cost. What is not explained, and is another indication that the SLD’s list must be used with care, is that this is not an invitation to ISP’s to boost their Internet fees to incorporate bundled web development. Applicants may still be required to show that their basic Internet service is being provided at a cost-effective rate.