SLD Provides Tool to Obtain Bulk FCC Registration Numbers
Message Posted December 20, 2004
Beginning this fall, the FCC is now requiring all entities (down to the
school level) to obtain FCC Registration Numbers (FCCRNs). The official
site for obtaining these numbers is on the FCC's website www.fcc.gov, using
the link on the left side of the page entitled, "FCC Registration Number
(FRN) Commission Registration System (CORES)".
Although this tool is very easy to use, districts that have more than a few
schools may wish to use the SLD's new tool for obtaining bulk FCCRNs. It's
now on the SLD's website www.sl.universalservice.org, entitled, "Requesting
FCC Registration Numbers through USAC" directly below the Headlines banner.
Then, from the instruction
page, select the bottom link, "FCC Registration Number Request Page".
There are 2 important advantages to using the SLD's tool for obtaining
FCCRNs.
1) As they issue you your FCCRNs, they will also enter them into the SLD's
own database. That means that you will not have to mail in a list of those
numbers as an attachment for your 471. Of course, you should still make an
attachment page for any numbers you got earlier from the CORES page, as
these numbers were not correlated with the SLD's databases.
2) The SLD's tool allows you to upload a multi-entity data file in a
comma-delimited format. If a data file is created in Excel, it must be
saved in CSV format before it can be uploaded. The required field structure
of the data file is available at
http://www.slforms.universalservice.org/FCCRegNum/BulkFileLayout.aspx. The
file itself can be uploaded at
http://www.slforms.universalservice.org/FCCRegNum/Welcome.aspx.
A few important notes:
* The instructions state that if you submit your info by Jan. 15, you will
receive your numbers by mail in early February. Submitting for the numbers
by February 25 will get a mailing returned in mid-March.
* Use the District's main Tax ID number for each building.
* Although the FCC's FCCRN site does not require it, the SLD's tool requires
the phone, fax and e-mail addresses for each entity. Until they make this
an optional field, you may want to just enter the District's main phone and
fax and e-mail address.
* The final data field in the SLD's tool is labeled "BEN." Usually, this
means the "Billed Entity Number," but in this case, the SLD is looking for
the individual entity number for the school building itself, not the main
Billed Entity Number of the District.
* The new Form 471 does not have fields to enter the FCCRNs this year, but
PIA will be requesting these before your application can be processed. So
if you apply via the FCC's site, you should include a separate page with
your Item 21 attachments listing those numbers. If you applied and received
your FCCRNs via the SLD's tool, those numbers will be automatically inserted
into their databases and you don't need to supply them with the Item 21
attachments.
Julie Tritt Schell
jtschell@comcast.net
(717) 730.7133 (voice)
(717) 730.9060 (fax)
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