E-rate FAQs – Form 471, Consortia Discounts, Maintenance Requests

March 11, 2015

The following are answers and guidance to the most frequently asked questions this week.

Form 471 Print Preview – It’s true; there is no feature in the new Form 471 to click a print preview button and see an entire Form 471.  We know this is a problem, but I don’t see the feature being available this year. The closest thing you can do is the following:

  • When in the Certification Page, click Review Application (at the very bottom) and it will show the four main sections of the form.
  • Click the “+” button, it will expand each section so you can print.  However….
  • The Funding Request Section will only show each FRN and does not automatically expand the underlying data for the entire FRN. To do that, click on the FRN name to see the Key Information, and then at the bottom of that page, click on the “+” button beside the “Products and Services Requested – Item 21″ item to see more details…
  • THEN, click on the “+” button for each line item number to see the recipients of service that you chose for that line item.
  • Only after you’ve expanded all of these sub sections should you hit Print.

Form 471 Connectivity Questions (in the Discount Calculation Section) – Yes, you must complete these questions for every Form 471 you submit, even if you answered them on a previous Form 471.  Also, if you are only applying for voice services, you still must answer the questions.

Category 1 and Category 2 Requests on the Same Form 471 – It is not possible to file a Form 471 that includes both Category 1 and Category 2 requests on the same application.  However, you can (and should) put all of your funding requests for that Category on the same Form 471.  You can do this by either choosing “Step-by-Step” or “Everything on one page” on the main Funding Request page.

Consortia Discount Calculations Problem – For consortia applicants where one consortium member is a non-instruction facility (NIF) such as a RWAN application where the IU is a single NIF entity, the new Form 471 will not allow you to have a consortia member NIF only worksheet.  I’m working with USAC on this issue and hope to have guidance on how to file your application in the next few days.

Basic Maintenance Filing Guidance – Although I know most PA applicants have opted to spend (or save) their C2 E-rate budgets for equipment/cabling and not apply for basic maintenance (BMIC), USAC has just developed a process that will help larger BMIC applicants with filing their Form 471.  It’s called the Alternative Data Entry (ADE) process and is NOT mandatory.  Currently for BMIC entries, applicants must every single piece of equipment that is being maintained, including type of product, quantity, make, model, a cost allocation if the equipment is not 100 percent eligible, and monthly and one-time eligible and ineligible costs. The applicant then indicates how the estimated BMIC costs should be allocated among the individual entities sharing the equipment. Applicants who choose to use ADE will enter one line for each recipient of service (individual school or library outlet/branch) in their BMIC funding request. Each line will represent the total cost of the BMIC request for that recipient of service without requiring item-by-item information in the dropdown and entry fields. Specific guidance on how to enter information using ADE is provided in the USAC guidance available at: http://www.usac.org/sl/tools/news-briefs/preview.aspx?id=606.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

– 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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