• IMPORTANT: Form 486 Filing Deadline – October 28, 2001
• IMPORTANT: Consortium Form 479 Requirements
• PY5 Application Planning
• New York State E-rate Training Sessions in November - Updated

The following is a summary of the E-rate News for the Week of October 15, 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 our E-Rate Central Web site .

IMPORTANT: Form 486 Filing Deadline – October 28, 2001

This is the last weekly reminder. After next week, it will be too late.

Any applicant who has received a PY4 funding commitment for one or more services starting in between 7/1/2001 and 10/28/2001 must have completed and mailed a Form 486 listing all such FRNs by Saturday, October 27, 2001. Any applicant funded after this date, or having services starting after this date has at least 120 days to file the associated Form 486. Details on these deadlines can be found on the SLD Web site.

Here’s an example of what happens if the deadline is missed. Assume that an applicant was awarded $12,000 in discounts for local phone service for the full year beginning July 1 (i.e., $1,000 per month), but does not complete and postmark the associated Form 486 until December 1 (i.e., after October 27). Having missed the deadline, the applicant will be eligible for discounts only from the date of the eventual filing. In this example, this means foregoing five months of service discounts worth $5,000.

A related note: Applicants who have already filed their Form 486s, as early as August, may find that their suppliers have not yet been notified. The SLD is currently trying to work its way out of Form 486 processing backlog created by the new system requirements of the CIPA certifications and the sheer volume of Form 486s. Hopefully, this situation will be resolved within a few weeks.

The SLD has heavily publicized the Form 486 deadline, but has not focused much attention on the related Form 479s for consortium applications. If a consortium has been awarded funding for any services other telecommunications, it cannot file a Form 486 until it first collects Form 479s from its members (including telecom-only members).

This is new requirement for PY4. The Form 479 requires members to certify their CIPA compliance status to the consortium leader. (Form 479s are not submitted to the SLD, but are merely retained on file by the consortium leader.) The consortium’s Form 486 can then include the certification that it has collected Form 479s “from all eligible members…” If a member does not submit a Form 479, the leader’s recourse is to make that member ineligible. An ineligible member cannot receive E-rate discounts.

Recommendation: Schools or libraries receiving E-rate eligible services through a consortium should check with their consortium leaders to determine if funding has already been awarded for PY4 and to ask if Form 479s are needed before the October 28^th Form 486 deadline.

If you haven’t already started, now is the time to begin the application process for next year’s PY5 funding.

The first step is to file a Form 470 describing the types of services needed. Eleven Form 470 tips, plus suggested language for broadly describing service requirements, can be found on our Web site. Please check the following carefully:

1. Make sure that the funding year is specified as July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003. A few Form 470s filed online earlier this summer referenced an earlier funding year (such as the current 2001-2002 year).
   
   
2. If filing online, be sure to print out the certification page, sign it, and mail the original to the SLD.

The filing window for the Form 471 should be announced shortly. Our best guess is that the window will run from November 5^th through January 17, 2002. Remember that you cannot select new service suppliers or file a Form 471 until the requisite Form 470 has been posted on the SLD’s Web site for at least 28 days.

The following developments are expected for PY5:

1. SLD correspondence related to PY5 will be on blue paper.
   
   
2. An updated list of eligible services should be posted on the SLD Web site within the week.
   
   
3. A procedure for using electronic signatures will be implemented in time for use with online filings of the Form 470. Instructions for using e-certifications should be posted on the SLD Web site before the window opens.
   
   
4. With few exceptions, E-rate applicants applying for discounts on Internet access or internal connections services will have to be fully CIPA compliant by the start of the program year, July, 1, 2002.
   
   
5. A Form 486 Notification Letter (to be mailed to applicants) and a revised version of Form 500 should be introduced later this year.

New York State E-rate Training Sessions in November - Updated

As we have done in previous years, E-Rate Central will be holding half-day E-rate workshops for New York State applicants this fall. The preliminary workshop schedule is provided below. Updates, locations, and registration information are posted on the New York State section of the E-rate Central Web site. Please be advised that security practices at some locations require pre-registration.

Nov. 9 – New York City (2 sessions)

Nov. 13 – Albany

Nov. 14 – Syracuse

Nov. 14 - Watertown (New Addition)

Nov. 15– Utica (Revised Date)

Nov. 16 – Buffalo