The following is a summary of the E-rate News for the Week of February 12, 2001, prepared by E-Rate Central. Official SLD news appears in the “What’s New!” section of the SLD’s Web site. Additional and archived information appears in E-Rate Central’s Web site.

The SLD posted a brief notice on its Web site this week offering assistance to applicants seeking BEAR reimbursements from suppliers that have gone out of business. This is a partial resolution of a broader problem that also involves vendors who have changed or consolidated SPINs or E-rate contacts.

The SLD’s new procedure for processing BEARs for an out-of-business supplier is to substitute a “Good Samaritan” provider. This would allow BEARs to be acknowledged by, and reimbursements to flow through, a supplier other than the one that originally provided and billed for the service. Because roles and responsibilities in this process need to be clearly defined and may work only with telecom providers, the SLD’s announcement is purposely vague. Applicants with this problem are encouraged to call the SLD (888-203-8100) for additional guidance.

For New York applicants dealing with other BEAR, SPIN, and supplier contact problems, we may be able to provide assistance as follows:

(a) A list of SPINs and supplier contacts for BEAR acknowledgments are maintained on our site. Please use this information with caution, because it changes frequently. (Recent change: PageNet has been acquired by Arch Paging. PageNet will now be using the Arch SPIN. Arch also has a new E-rate coordinator.) Please help us maintain and expand this list (see fax and e-mail address below).

(b) If the supplier contact information provided by the SLD in the reference area of its Web site no longer works, please fax (516-832-2877) or e-mail us the old contact information and we will try to get updated information from the SLD. If the supplier in question holds a New York State contract, we may be able to get additional assistance through OGS.