Confusion About Invoice Deadline Extension Request E-mails

November 8, 2016

Yesterday, USAC sent bulk Invoice Deadline Extension Request  (IDER) decision e-mails to applicants nationwide and the contents of those e-mails have created mass confusion.  I hope this message sheds a little light on why you may have – or may not have – received an e-mail.

1)      If you submitted an IDER using Submit a Question between October 26 – October 31, USAC has not yet issued decision e-mails on those yet.  They’re likely coming next week.  The IDER decision e-mails that were issues yesterday were for those submitted using Submit a Question on or before October 25.

2)      The IDER decision e-mails that were issued yesterday contained 3 different types of “decisions” as follows:

• Approved
• Dismissed – Dismissed because an IDER request had already been approved via another request.  There was no need for USAC to issue a second approval and so it was “dismissed.”
• Denied – Denied because the funding cap had already been exceeded.

3)      If you received an e-mail but never submitted an IDER, it’s most likely because your vendor submitted an IDER for one or more of your FY 2015 FRNs and you were simply sent a courtesy copy of the decision e-mail.  In my opinion, USAC shouldn’t have copied applicants on these.

4)      If you submitted the IDER in the Online BEAR tool, you received instant approval and would NOT have received an e-mail from USAC yesterday unless a separate IDER was submitted (either by you or by your vendor).

If you want to see whether your IDER has been approved, go to:  http://www.sl.universalservice.org/utilities/FRN_CurFundExt.asp and select Year 18 – FY 2015 from the drop down list.  You can then search by FRN number.

The bottom line is this:  If you submitted a FY 2015 invoice deadline extension request on or before October 31, 2016, it has been or will be approved.  USAC is not denying ANY IDER requests for which there is still funding remaining in the funding commitment.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at jtschell@comcast.net.

Happy Election Day!

– Julie

Julie Tritt Schell
PA E-rate Coordinator

717-730-7133 – o
717-730-9060 – f
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org

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