USAC update – Cutover to new Form 470

 Website Maintenance This Weekend – Cutover from the Old to the New Form 470 

January 5, 2011

What To Do If You Have Started a Form 470 

This weekend, the Apply Online page and related tools will be unavailable starting at 6:00 pm EST Friday evening to as late as 5:00 pm EST on Sunday. USAC will be performing its customary website maintenance to prepare for the opening of the FY2011 filing window and also posting the new online Form 470.

Below are the steps you should take if you have not yet completed and certified your Form 470 using the old version of the form. Remember that you cannot cite an incomplete or uncertified Form 470 on a Form 471 Block 5 funding request.

Here are the situations you may be in today:

1.     I have not yet started a Form 470.

2.     I have started a Form 470 but have not yet submitted it.

3.     I have submitted a Form 470 but have not yet certified it.

4.     I have submitted but not certified a Form 470 and the authorized person is unavailable.

5.     I have submitted a Form 470 on paper and my form status is “INCOMPLETE.”

6.     I have submitted a Form 470 online and mailed a paper certification, but my form status is still “COMPLETE.”

7.     I have submitted and certified a Form 470.

And here are the steps you should take either before cutover (this Friday evening) or after cutover (when the Apply Online page and related tools are available again after this weekend):

1. I have not yet started a Form 470.

Before cutover: If you would like to file your Form 470 using the old version of the form, you can file and certify your form online before this weekend. If you would like to file on paper using the old form, it is too late for us to process your form – you can file a paper form next week using the new Form 470 that will be posted on the website.

After cutover: Use the new version of the Form 470 and file and certify it either online or on paper.

2. I have started a Form 470 but have not yet submitted it.

Before cutover: Complete your Form 470 online this week and click on the “Submit” button on the last page.

After cutover: We recommend that you create a new form using the new version of the Form 470 and file and certify it either online or on paper.

3. I have submitted a Form 470 but have not yet certified it.

Before cutover: On the Apply Online page, click on the “Certify Complete” button in the Form 470 column and enter your application number. If you submitted your form online using the Form 470 Interview version, also enter your security code (the first five digits of your application number). If you did not use the Form 470 Interview version, leave the security code blank. Then you can either:

• Click on “Electronic Certification” to certify your form online or
• Click on “Paper Certification” to print a copy of your certification. You can then sign and date the certification where indicated and send the certification to USAC at the address at the bottom of the last page.

After cutover:

• On the Apply Online page, click on the “Search Posted” button in the Form 470 column. Choose Funding Year 2011 and click on the ”Next>>” button.
• Enter your Billed Entity Number or Form 470 application number where indicated and click the “Next>>” button.
• Select the radio button to the left of the form you want to certify and then click on the “Review Selected Application” button.
• Using your browser’s Print function, print a copy of your entire form.
• Write “CERTIFICATION” at the top of the first page of the printed copy of the form.
• Sign and date the printed copy in Items 27 and 28, respectively.
• Send the entire form to USAC at the address at the bottom of the last page.

4. I have submitted but not certified a Form 470 and the authorized person is unavailable.

Before cutover: Follow the guidance in #3 before cutover above to print a copy of the certification page. When the authorized person is available, ask him or her to sign and date the certification. Then send the completed certification to USAC at the address at the bottom of the last page. (Note: As long as you print the certification before cutover, you can send it to USAC after cutover.)

After cutover: Follow the guidance in #3 after cutover above.

5. I have submitted a Form 470 on paper and my form status is “INCOMPLETE.”

Before or after cutover: Call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 1-888-203-8100. Your form is in the data entry process and we may be attempting to contact you to supply missing or incomplete information.

6. I have submitted a Form 470 online and mailed a paper certification, but my form status is still “COMPLETE.”

Before or after cutover: Call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 1-888-203-8100 to find out the status of your certification. We may be attempting to contact you for additional information to complete the data entry of your certification. If we have not received your certification, we may ask you to send us a copy of the certification that you kept for your records.

7. I have submitted and certified a Form 470.

You are all set and do not need to do anything else. You can cite this Form 470 on a Form 471 Block 5 funding request for FY2011.

REMINDER: After cutover, you must use the new Form 470, whether you file online or on paper. If you file a Form 470 on paper using the old version of the form after cutover, CSB will contact you and ask you to supply the additional information required on the new form.

SLD Tip of the Week and News Briefs for Dec. 30, 2010

Funding Commitments for Appeals and Prior Funding Years 

USAC occasionally releases waves for original commitments for prior funding years and for commitments on meritorious appeals for all funding years. Commitments on meritorious appeals are revisions of earlier commitment decisions that result from successful appeals.

Each month, summary information for these waves is posted on the Prior Year Wave Information page in the Outreach and Training section of the USAC website.

As an example, below is the list from the Prior Year Wave Information Page of the waves issued in November 2010 for both prior funding years and for meritorious appeals:

Waves for Prior Funding Years

Appeal Waves

To help you understand this information, note the following:

• As you can see from the table above, USAC issued two original commitment waves for FY2008 – Waves 80P and 80Q – in November. These waves are therefore the 16th and 17th waves issued after the last regular (weekly) commitment wave for FY2008, “P” and “Q” being the 16th and 17th letters of the alphabet.
• As a reminder for applicants looking for information on waves in the USAC database, wave numbers are always three alphanumeric digits. Waves 80 and 80A for FY2008 are designated “080″ and “80A” respectively.

• As you can see from the table above, USAC issued two appeal waves for FY2010 – Waves A05 and A06 – in November. These waves included revised commitments for funding decisions made by USAC and later successfully appealed. Appeal waves A01 and A02 for FY2010 were issued in September 2010 and appeal waves A03 and A04 were issued in October, which you can verify yourself on the Prior Year Wave Information page.

For specific information on prior year, appeal, and regular commitment waves, refer to the Data Retrieval Tool on the USAC website. Remember, if you search for data by wave number, all wave numbers are three alphanumeric digits in length.

The latest from SLD – Dec. 23, 2010

TIP OF THE WEEK: Don’t forget the January 28, 2011 invoicing deadline for FY2009 non-recurring services. If you cannot meet that deadline and you still intend to invoice USAC, you should file an invoicing deadline extension request if your deadline has not already been extended.

Commitments for Funding Years 2010 and 2009

 Funding Year 2010. USAC will release FY2010 Wave 32 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) December 28. This wave includes commitments for approved Priority 2 (Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance) requests at 81% and above. As of December 23, FY2010 commitments total over $1.98 billion.

Funding Year 2009. USAC will release FY2009 Wave 77 FCDLs December 29. This wave will include commitments for approved Priority 2 requests at 77% and above and denials at 76% and below. As of December 23, FY2009 commitments total over $2.79 billion.

On the day the FCDLs are mailed, you can check to see if you have a commitment by using USAC’s Automated Search of Commitments tool.

Winter Contact Procedure in Effect Until January 7, 2011

USAC has procedures to contact applicants and service providers if more information is necessary to process a form. Below we discuss two of the most common situations where USAC needs more information:

Problem Resolution. If USAC cannot data enter a paper form because information is missing or inconsistent, Problem Resolution will attempt to reach the contact person listed on the form (or in our database, if no contact information is provided on the form) to obtain the necessary information.

Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) review. If USAC needs more information from an applicant to complete the review of an application, a PIA initial reviewer will use the contact information provided on the form both to send questions and to inform the applicant of any correctable errors discovered on the form during review.

We realize that, during a summer period and a winter period each year, many applicants are unavailable due to extended holiday and break schedules.

Our winter period is defined as the Friday before Christmas Day through the Friday after New Year’s Day. For 2010, the dates of the winter period are December 17, 2010 (due to the Friday, December 24 federal holiday) through January 7, 2011.

If our first attempt to reach you is on or after December 17, and we cannot confirm by telephone that you are available to respond to our questions, we will not begin Problem Resolution or PIA review until after January 7. However, if we have made a successful contact with you before December 17, your 15-day response clock has started and we will act on the information we have on hand if we have not heard from you by the response deadline. We define a successful contact as:

A sent email message with no return notification of non-delivery or out-of-office response A sent fax with a confirmation of successful transmission A voicemail left at the contact person’s telephone number if the recorded greeting does not state that the contact person is out of the office A live person answering our call at the contact telephone number or a return call responding to our message. If PIA has already contacted you and you wish to designate someone to answer questions in your absence, be sure to send your designee’s contact information to your PIA reviewer.

If PIA has not contacted you and your designee will be checking your messages, be sure that you have provided written authorization for your designee to answer questions about your application. PIA will request this authorization in case any changes need to be made.

If you designate someone to answer questions in your absence, be sure that person has sufficient knowledge of your application to respond accurately. If someone answers a call from PIA but is not in a position to answer PIA questions, make sure the PIA reviewer understands that the application review should be put on hold until you return to the office. Remember also that you can ask for more time to respond if you need it.

E-Rate News and Tip of the Week from USAC – Dec. 17, 2010

E-rate Deployed Ubiquitously (EDU) 2011 Pilot Program applicants: The FCC’s website will be down starting at 6pm EST this Friday, December 17, 2010; therefore, if you are using the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) to submit your application, it must be submitted by 6pm EST to be considered as filed by the deadline posted in Public Notice DA-10-2128.  

Commitments for Funding Years 2010 and 2009

Funding Year 2010. USAC will release FY2010 Wave 31 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) December 21. This wave includes commitments for approved Priority 2 (Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance) requests at 85% and above. As of December 17, FY2010 commitments total just over $1.91 billion.

Funding Year 2009. USAC will release FY2009 Wave 76 FCDLs December 22. This wave will include commitments for approved Priority 2 requests at 77% and above and denials at 76% and below. As of December 17, FY2009 commitments total over $2.79 billion.

On the day the FCDLs are mailed, you can check to see if you have a commitment by using USAC’s Automated Search of Commitments tool.

FCC Updates

On Wednesday, December 15, 2010, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released DA 10-2355 clarifying the eligibility of basic maintenance and the new E-rate program gift rules adopted in the Sixth Report and Order. On this same date, the Bureau also released public notice DA 10-2356, providing further guidance to E-rate program participants, listing effective dates of the proposals adopted in the Sixth Report and Order and answering frequently asked questions (FAQs). 

December Reminders

Here are a few tips to keep in mind before the end of the calendar year:

Get paper Forms 470 to USAC by January 4, 2011, if you are using the October 2004 version.

USAC will post a revised version of the Form 470 to the website by January 11, 2011. Once the revised version of this form replaces the current (October 2004) version on the website, applicants will not be able to file – and USAC will not be able to process – the October 2004 version of the form.

If you want to file Form 470 on paper for FY2011 using the current version of the form, USAC must receive your paper form by January 4, 2011, in order to review it and complete data entry. If we cannot complete data entry of your form before the revised form is up on the website, we will contact you to get the missing information that the revised version of the form requires prior to posting your Form 470.

COMPLETE Forms 470 started online before January 11, 2011…

When the revised Form 470 is available on the USAC website, current online Forms 470 started but not completed before that time will no longer be accessible. (You will not be able to view or complete your unfinished form.) To avoid any problems:

• If you have started or intend to start a Form 470 online using the current form, you must complete your entries and push the “Submit” button before the revised Form 470 replaces the current one. If you don’t, you will have to start over again with the revised form.
• Because the window is scheduled to close on March 24, 2011, applicants waiting until January 11, 2011, to file with the revised Form 470 will have time for the form to be posted for 28 days before filing a Form 471. You will also be able to continue an incomplete form online using the ”Continue Incomplete” button and certify a form online or on paper using the ”Certify Complete” button.

Forms 470 must be posted to the USAC website no later than February 24, 2011, and be posted for 28 days prior to filing Form 471 for FY2011.

…AND CERTIFY Forms 470 filed online before January 11, 2011.

When the revised Form 470 is available on the USAC website, the certification function will only work for the revised form. You will not be able to access current Forms 470 filed online before that date nor will you be able to certify them online.

• If you certify on paper using the current form, we recommend that you send your certification in time for USAC to receive it by January 4, 2011. This will give us time to verify that all of the entries are consistent with your online entries and process your certification before the revised Form 470 replaces the current one.
• If you certify online using the current form, we recommend that you certify your form no later than January 10, 2011.

Remember that the winter deferral period starts today.

If you have filed a Form 470 on paper and we cannot complete data entry of your form because of missing, incomplete, or inconsistent information, we will attempt to contact you using your preferred mode of contact.

If we have not made a successful contact with you before today, December 17, we will stop trying to contact you until the winter deferral period is over on January 7, 2011. This means that your Form 470 may not be posted to the website before the revised Form 470 becomes available, and if your form is not posted by that time you will be required to file the revised form.

If it has been at least two weeks since you sent your paper form to USAC and it has not yet been posted to the USAC website, call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at 1-888-203-8100 to check on the status of your form. Also, you should check on the status of paper forms you file now to be sure we have all the information we need to post your form.

Review the revised Forms 470 and 471 and instructions.

If you review the revised Form 470 and the revised Form 470 Instructions, you will be better able to decide whether you want to file a Form 470 now or wait for the revised form to become available. Either version of the Form 470 can be cited on a Form 471 Block 5 funding request for FY2011; however, only the revised version of the Form 471 will be accepted for FY2011.

FCC’s Addendum to the 6th Report and Order

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-2356A1.pdf