• PY4 Funding Status
• Important FCC Decision re. Consortiums
• SLD Posts FRN Extension Table
• NYS E-rate News
• Service Provider Information Updates

The following is a summary of the E-rate News for the Week of July 9, 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 elsewhere on the E-Rate Central Web site .

PY4 Funding Status

The SLD currently expects to be able to begin issuing FCDLs for the current program year by the end of the month. The first wave should be a large one; subsequent waves will follow at two-week intervals.

The first wave of FCDLs will provide funding for Priority One (telecommunications and Internet access) services. Initial FCDLs may also include funding denials for Priority Two (internal connections) requests by lower discount rate applicants (probably those with discount rates at or below 60-80%). Applications involving internal connection requests from higher discount rate applicants are unlikely to be addressed until the fall when funding availability can be more carefully calculated.

The new Form 479, for consortium use, has just been released. A copy of Form 479 and its instructions are available on the SLD Web site. Since the last date for filing a Form 486 indicating CIPA compliance status for PY4 is October 28, 2001, and since all Forms 479s must be received before a Form 486 can be filed, consortia leaders should begin collecting Form 479s from their members as soon as possible. The revised Form 486, containing similar CIPA certification language, is in the final approval stages at the FCC and OMB.

A subset of Form 471 applications are still in the SLD's Problem Resolution stage awaiting data entry. Many of these are larger applications and/or those that had been mailed in paper format (i.e., not entered online). We estimate that 1,000 or more Receipt Acknowledgment Letters ("RALs"), indicating completion of data entry, are still outstanding.

Important FCC Decision re. Consortiums

The FCC released a key decision earlier this month addressing the issue of Letter of Agency requirements for consortium applications. The issue arose with increasing frequency during last year's application review process as the SLD attempted to confirm that all listed members of a consortium had actually authorized the leader to apply for E-rate discounts on their behalf. In a number of cases, the SLD asked the applicant to provide copies of Letters of Agency from consortium members and denied the entire application if such documentation could not be obtained from ALL members.

FCC decision DA 01-1620 upheld the appropriateness of the SLD's requests for Letters of Agency but ruled, assuming that the applicant was acting in good faith, that support should not be denied for the entire consortium based on the failure of a small minority of members. The FCC upheld the SLD's right to deny funding to those members from which it received no Letter of Agency prior to making its funding decision. A copy of this FCC decision can be found on the FCC Web site.

Given the logistics of obtaining Letters of Agency from all members, it is recommended that consortium leaders seek member authorization as early in the application process as possible, ideally prior to filing a Form 470. A sample Letter of Agency can be found in our E-rate News for the Week of 12/4/00.

The Letter of Agency requirement is one of several coordinating issues faced by consortia leaders. Similar issues apply to certifications of technology plan approvals and CIPA compliance (the latter requiring the collection of new Form 479s from all members). For additional information, see our E-rate News for the Week of 6/4/01.

SLD Posts FRN Extension Table

Friday afternoon, the SLD posted a list on its Web site showing 11,854 funding requests that have received or may receive extensions of the implementation deadline for the delivery and installation of non-recurring services. Each table entry shows the extension deadline for service and a deadline for submission of the associated service provider invoice or BEAR reimbursement forms. The SLD's accompanying explanation instructs applicants to file appeals if they believe the listed deadlines are incorrect or if their FRNs are missing from the list.

Many of the service deadline entries are for last year. In these cases, the critical date is the invoice submission deadline, a few of which have already passed. Note that the table does not include any 9/30/2002 service extensions that would apply to many PY3 and out-of-the-window PY2 FRNs. It is expected that a list of 2002 FRN extensions will be provided by the SLD later this month.

NYS E-rate News

The FCC appointed Thomas Dunleavy, a NYS PSC Commissioner, as a state representative to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. This should give New York State and its E-rate applicants a high-level point of contact on E-rate program issues.

OGS has negotiated a new State master contract with AT&T for both dedicated and dial-up Internet access services. This replaces the previous contract with Intermedia Communications that expired June 30, 2001. The new contract extends through May 14, 2004. For details, see the OGS Web site .

Service Provider Information Updates

The SLD announced a workshop for service provider representatives in Seattle on August 13-14, 2001. A similar east coast workshop is expected to be held in Washington DC later this fall. Both workshops are designed for vendor personnel responsible for customer outreach and for billing and invoicing. Click here to read the SLD notice on the Seattle workshop.

Effective next week, PricewaterhouseCoopers will become the SLD remittance contractor responsible for issuing checks for approved service provider invoices or BEAR reimbursements. The previous contractor was NECA, the National Carrier Exchange Association. For a transitional period, vendors calling the existing toll-free remittance number may get only voicemail. An interim toll-paid number is available and will be listed when the minutes of the SLD's July 11th service provider conference call are posted.