E-rate December 2024 Update

December 11, 2024

Supreme Court Takes USF Constitutionality Case – In the November update, I reported that in July 2024, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Universal Service Fund (USF) was unconstitutional.  In earlier decisions, both the 6th and 11th Circuit Courts found the opposite – that the USF was constitutional.  Both the Justice Department as well as the petitioners petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, and the high court has agreed to hear the case.  The briefs are due by mid-January, with oral arguments expected to take place in late-March.  We expect a decision in June 2025.  In the meantime, E-Rate and the other three USF programs are operating and will continue, “business as usual.”  Please continue with your FY 2025 application process, just as you have in previous years and I’ll keep you posted as the case proceeds.

Update Enrollment/NSLP Data in EPC Now – The period before the Form 471 window opens when schools and libraries make sure their EPC profiles are up to date is called the Admin Window.  The Admin Window deadline for FY 2025 has not been announced but I expect it will be around January 10.  Applicants are required to update their enrollment and NSLP (or CEP%) each year.  If you haven’t done so already, be sure to log into EPC and update this data for each school before you leave for the holiday recess, using the corrected draft data and helpful guide available at:  https://e-ratepa.org/?p=35803.  If your school’s information is missing, be sure to have your food service director submit the October 2024 NSLP claim form ASAP.  I will attempt to obtain and send a revised draft list in early January, so you can make sure that the data you’ve entered matches what was submitted to PDE.

Answers to Recent Enrollment/NSLP/CEP Questions:

  • If your PDE data is lumped together for 2 schools but broken out in EPC, you should obtain the breakdown from your food service director and enter it by school building in EPC.
  • EPC does not accept a CEP % below 40%.  If you have a school with a CEP% below 40%, you must average together all of the school’s CEP data and enter the average CEP% for each CEP school in your district (not just the school with the CEP% below 40%).  PIA will ask you for the individual breakdown by school and you’ll need to be prepared to show them your calculations.

Begin Your FY 2025 Bidding If You Haven’t Started – If you have a contract that needs to be rebid, or you will be seeking Category 2 funding for FY 2025, and you haven’t yet started your competitive bidding process, please do so as soon as possible.  Do not wait until January to begin your bidding!  How do you know if you have to bid?  Here’s a reminder:

     1)  If a service is covered on a Month-to-Month basis (meaning no contract exists – these are mostly cable modem-type services) AND your services do not qualify for the CABIO bidding exemption;

     2)  At the beginning of any new contract.  Note:  If you posted a Form 470 in a previous year, and then signed a multi-year contract that expires on or after June 30, 2026, you are not required to file a Form 470 for FY 2025. 

     3)  If you’re upgrading service and the upgrades and associated prices are not included in the original contract.

A rebidding status list, based on the contract expiration dates you listed on the FY 2024 Form 471, is available at:  https://e-ratepa.org/?p=35734.

FY 2025 Form 471 Window Dates – The Form 471 window filing dates have not yet been announced.  I expect we will have the dates before the holiday break, and they will be very similar to previous years which is that the window will open mid-January and close mid-late March.   Regardless of the exact dates – file your Form 470’s now!

Spam/Robo Bids – I have received multiple inquiries about applicants’ obligations to consider spam or “robo” bids.  We have raised our concerns about these bids with USAC on multiple occasions and they have provided the following guidance/requirements and advice for language to include with your Form 470 or RFP.   “All bids received should be retained during the competitive bidding process.  Disqualification factors can be applied to bids received that do not meet minimum bid requirements, do not include site- or project-specific details, and/or are not responsive to the applicant’s requests. Applicants may include language in their FCC Form 470 narrative or request for proposal (RFP), such as, “SPAM and/or robotic responses will not be considered valid bid responses and will be disqualified from consideration.”  By doing this, applicants can disqualify bids based on this factor. The decision to disqualify any non-responsive bids should also be memorialized and retained to demonstrate compliance with the E-Rate competitive bidding rules.”

Do You Have Category 2 Funding Remaining?  Don’t forget that FY 2025 is the 5th and final year of the current 5-year Category 2 budget cycle!  To view your remaining C2 budget for FY 2025 (as of 9/17/2024), see: https://e-ratepa.org/?p=35679.  If you update your C2 enrollment in EPC, the C2 budget will change and the results can be found on USAC’s C2 Budget Data Tool at: E-Rate-C2-Budget-Tool-FY2021.  Simply use the filter on the right side of the page.  Unused C2 budgets will not roll over into FY 2026, but a new C2 budget cycle will begin.

Post Form 470’s or Issue PEPPM Mini-Bids Now! – If you haven’t done so already, please review what Category 1 contracts are expiring, and determine what equipment you will need for FY 2025.  My suggestion is to begin your procurements no later than the first week in December, evaluation your bids in January, take the new contracts to your board in February, and then submit the Form 471 in late February/early March.  The sooner you release these bids, the less stress you will feel in February and March.  Here are recent messages to help you with these filings:

FY 2024 Form 486s Due and Overdue – There are 15 PA schools and libraries that were funded for FY 2024 but that have not yet filed their Form 486s to certify CIPA compliance and turn on funding.  If your name is on this list, file your Form 486 ASAP.  If you’re submitting the Form 486 after the original deadline, you also must file an appeal with USAC to request that the Service Start Date is adjusted back to 7/1/2024 so you don’t lose any E-rate funding.  Form-486s-Due-as-of-Dec-10-2024.xlsx.  A helpful filing guide is available at:  Form-486-Filing-Guide-FY-2024.pdf. 

Off-Campus Wi-Fi Hotspot Eligibility and Calculator – Although there is some uncertainty about how the incoming administration will regard off-campus hotspots, schools and libraries that need this service should proceed with their plans but consider signing contracts that are contingent on receiving an E-rate funding commitment.  I have created a helpful hotspot budget calculation worksheet to help schools and libraries determine the maximum amount of funding they may request each funding year at:  Hot-Spot-3-Year-Budget-Calculation-Worksheet-.xlsx.  Also, USAC has extensive resources related to this new initiative at:  off-premises-wi-fi-hotspots-summary-overview/. 

Extending an Existing Contract for FY 2025 – If your original contract included (finite, not open-ended) voluntary extensions and you wish to exercise one of those extensions for FY 2025, be certain to notify the vendor in writing of that decision before the Form 471 is filed.  USAC will ask for a copy of that written notification during PIA review, so be sure to retain evidence of that notification.

Important PEPPM Reminder – If you will be using the PA PEPPM Contract as the bidding vehicle for your FY 2025 procurements, ALWAYS download and use the most recent version of the PEPPM Category/Awarded Vendor List when sending PEPPM mini-bids.  The Category/Awarded Vendor List is Attachment C on the PEPPM page:  https://e-ratepa.org/?page_id=6121 and is a live document.  Additional product lines are added, authorized resellers change, and vendor contact information changes, so it’s important that you always use the most recent version.  Also, the updated FY 2025 PEPPM Mini-Bid Guide is available at:  PEPPM-E-rate-Bidding-Guide-2024.pdf.

EPC Log-in Errors and How to Resolve – In the last few months, applicants have been reporting they are continuing to receive the following error message when logging into EPC after they go through multi-factor authentication:  “AuthSDKError: Unable to parse a token from the URL”.   We have found the three possible ways to overcome this error are:

1)  Clear your cache.

2)  Select Control F5 when you receive the error.

3)  Enter this USL after receiving the error and it often takes you directly into EPC without requiring a new authentication – https://portal.usac.org.

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

— Julie

Julie Tritt Schell
Pennsylvania E-rate Coordinator
717-730-7133 – o
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org

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