Wave 16 of Funding Year 2002 will be released on Tuesday, November 19. Total funding in this Wave is approximately $42 million for 300 applications. The cumulative total for FY 2002 is now $1.46 billion for over 27,600 applications. The comparable totals for New York State are $295 million for 1,600 applications. Numerically, the vast majority of the applications for this year have been funded, but less than 60% of the total estimated funding has been awarded.

Internal Connection funding is being provided for applicants at the 90% discount rate. No Internal Connection funding is available below 80%. The availability of Internal Connection funding for discounts in the 80-89% range cannot yet be projected, but requests for funding in this range are currently being reviewed by the SLD.

As indicated in last week's E-rate News of the Week, the SLD was experiencing some difficulties with its new online Form 471 application platform. These problems continued through the week and, as a result, the SLD has reverted to last year's filing system (under which, the Web page format did not match the comparable paper form). With the old system in place, two points should be noted:

(1) If a partially completed Form 471 has already been entered online, the applicant should still be able to continue the application under the revised system.

(2) If a library applicant uses the "Copy Block 4" function to pre-populate discount rate information from last year's application, care should be taken to review, and correct if necessary, the discount rates for this year using the revised calculation methodology described in the new Form 471 instructions. The new instructions are available at http://www.sl.universalservice.org/data/pdf/i471yr6.pdf.

Unless there are pressing reasons to file online now, we recommend waiting another week or two before beginning the online filing process to avoid any minor problems that may arise as the system is changed. Applicants needing to file online now, and experiencing system problems, should call the SLD Client Service Bureau at 888-203-8100.

We have recently encountered several applicants rushing to sign contracts for 2003-2004 services. While we strongly encourage applicants not to wait until the waning days of the Form 471 filing window (which closes January 16, 2003), we remind applicants that vendors for FY 2003 cannot be selected and contracts cannot be signed before the Form 470 Allowable Contract Date, 28 days after the posting the applicants' Form 470s on the SLD Web site. Contracts signed before the Allowable Contract Date will be considered ineligible for E-rate discounts.

E-Rate Central Training Slides Available

Over the past month, E-Rate Central has conducted a series of half-day E-rate workshops, primarily in New York State. A streamlined copy of the PowerPoint slides used at these presentations is available on the E-Rate Central Web site.

Applicants interested in a more detailed presentation can find copies of the slides used by the SLD in a special two-day September workshop in the Reference Section of the SLD Web site at http://www.sl.universalservice.org/reference/Presenations2002.asp.