FCC Grants PEPPM Bidding Exemption for CyberPilot!

May 20, 2025

~ Review CPP Mini-Bid Guide ~

~ Attend Webinar Next Week ~

I am pleased to share that the FCC has granted a State Master Contract Bidding Exemption for the 61 cybersecurity-related contracts on the PA PEPPM Contract.  In doing so, the 54 Pennsylvania schools and libraries that were selected to participate in the FCC’s Cybersecurity Pilot Program (CPP or CyberPilot) may utilize the PA State PEPPM Contract as the procurement vehicle for their CyberPilot equipment and service requests.  Consistent with the PEPPM bidding rules, CPP participants must conduct a PEPPM mini-bid and select the most cost-effective bidder.

While similar to the E-rate PEPPM mini-bidding rules, CyberPilot PEPPM mini-bidding uses different product lines, a different cover e-mail template, and a different mini-bid template.  It is important that CyberPilot Participants first begin by reviewing the comprehensive step-by-step CyberPilot PEPPM Mini-Bid Guide, available at:  https://e-ratepa.org/?page_id=35967, and then use the attachments on that page to complete the process. 

CPP PEPPM Mini-Bid Webinar: 

On Wednesday, May 28 at 1:00 p.m., I will hold a webinar to explain the exemption and review the CPP PEPPM Mini-Bid process and requirements.  If you were approved for CPP and are interested in using the PEPPM option, please register and attend.  Also, if you have specific questions, please include them with your registration.   Register at:  XX1sj_5yRNidOiJH661X5A. 

Note:  Please do not issue any CPP PEPPM mini-bids until Wednesday, May 28.  We believe that many cybersecurity vendors may not be familiar with PEPPM mini-bids and do not yet know the rules and their responsibilities.  Therefore, we are conducting a separate vendor webinar on May 28 in the morning, so they are knowledgeable about how to respond to your bids.  In the meantime, you can be preparing your equipment/service list and minimum bid and solution requirements. 

CPP Participants are not required to use the PEPPM procurement option and may post a CPP Form 470 to competitively bid the equipment or services that they are seeking.  However, if they are using PEPPM, they should NOT also file their own Form 470 for the same products/services. 

The FCC’s CyberPilot Eligible Service List is divided into four categories: 

  • Advanced/Next-Generation Firewalls
  • Endpoint Protection
  • Identity Protection and Authentication
  • Monitoring, Detection, and Response

Applicants are strongly encouraged to issue a separate CPP PEPPM Mini-Bid for each category of service.  There is one exception:  if a product/solution falls under multiple categories, it is ok to issue a single mini-bid for the product/solution.  By confining each Mini-Bid to a single category, this will help applicants to conduct an apples-to-apples bid evaluation of like products/services.

Important:  Unlike the E-rate PEPPM Vendor List, the CPP PEPPM Contract/Vendor List is not identified by categories.  As such, all procurements should be sent to all Awarded Vendors on the list.  CPP Participants also may send to Authorized Resellers on Tab two if Column D indicates that the Awarded Vendors use resellers.

I look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday at 1!

— Julie

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

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