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| The E-Rate News for the Week, prepared by E-Rate Central, is sponsored by the State E-Rate Coordinators’ Alliance (“SECA”). Official SLD news is provided in the "Important Notices" section of the SLD’s Web site. Additional E-rate information and archived copies of this newsletter are located on the E-Rate Central Web site. | |||||||||||
| Funding Freeze Begins to Thaw | |||||||||||
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The SLD announced that it expects to resume the issuance of new funding
commitments within the next two weeks. Although the accounting problems which
have frozen new commitments since August 3rd have not been solved, the SLD now
has sufficient unobligated cash on hand to cover at least a portion of the
applications that have been approved and that are currently sitting in a queue
to be committed.
Consistent with the priority scheme discussed last week, November's new commitments should cover all currently approved funding for FY 2003 (or earlier) as well as some of the existing backlog of FY 2004 commitments. As additional unobligated cash becomes available, either as a result of new carrier contributions or by freeing up currently committed funding, the SLD will issue additional funding waves. Because of continued cash constraints, the SLD is not expected to return to the traditional pattern of bi-weekly waves any time soon, but will hopefully be able to release a new wave at least every month. One interesting development to watch in this morass is a request just made by USAC to the FCC to boost carrier E-rate contributions in the next quarter to $837.5 million. This represents one-fourth of the $2.25 billion annual cap, plus an additional $275 million to recapture half of the $550 million in reductions that the FCC had made over the past three quarters. It remains to be seen if the FCC will adopt a contribution rate high enough to achieve this level of funding. The FCC's ruling is not expected until mid-December. |
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| FY 2005 Application Window Finalized | |||||||||||
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The SLD has indicated that the Form 471 application filing window for FY 2005
will open at noon on December 14th and close at 11:59 p.m. EST on February 17,
2005. The online version of the Form 471 will be made available as soon as the
window opens; a paper version of the Form 471, which is still in draft form,
may be available shortly before.
A new version of the Form 470 is expected to become available later this month, but applicants can file their Form 470s for FY 2005 now by going online (see Apply Online) or by using the current (May 2003) paper version (see Forms Rack). Since applicants must wait 28 days after their Form 470s are posted on the SLD's Web site before selecting vendors, signing contracts, or filing their Form 471s, we encourage applicants to file their Form 470s as early as possible. |
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| E-Rate Training Available Online | |||||||||||
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A large selection of recorded or live training sessions on various E-rate
topics are, or will be, available on the SLD's WebEx site (see
E-rate WebEx).
Thirty-eight live sessions are scheduled over the next three months covering such topics as program compliance, competitive bidding, technology planning, new form changes, and audits. Pre-registration is required to participate. All sessions, however, are recorded and made available for later viewing. Fourteen recorded sessions are currently available. We encourage applicants to peruse the list of recorded and upcoming sessions to take advantage of this training. Copies of the PowerPoint slides used by E-Rate Central in the workshops it held this Fall in New York State are available at ERC Slides. Topics covered in these slides include:
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| Disclaimer: This newsletter may contain unofficial information on prospective E-rate developments and/or may reflect our own interpretations of E-rate practices and regulations. Such information is provided for planning and guidance purposes only. It is not meant, in any way, to supplant official announcements and instructions provided by either the SLD or the FCC. | |||||||||||
