FCC Updates Guidance on E-Rate, Seeks Comment on Form 470 Drop-Down Menu
The Wireline Bureau is taking comments through Oct. 31, replies Nov. 15, on Universal Service Administrative Co.'s drop-down menu options for FCC Form 470 applicants use to solicit bids from service providers for E-Rate eligible services, said a public notice…
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on docket 13-184 and in Wednesday's Daily Digest. It seeks to improve the menu to address concerns about the current drop-down menu, reduce administrative burdens and minimize applicant confusion. Menu changes would be available in time for bidding on funding year 2021, the bureau said. It wants changes to be intuitive, technology neutral, searchable and compliant with the program's rules. Stakeholders wanted changes to the form in time for the FY 2020 bidding cycle (see 1808170022). In a letter in Wednesday's Daily Digest, Wireline Bureau Chief Kris Monteith and FCC Managing Director Mark Stephens outlined guidance on how USAC should treat E-rate applications for which an applicant mistakenly selected a drop-down menu option on form 470 that didn't fully reflect the services for which it intended to seek bids: Don't "deny any remaining pending application or issue a commitment adjustment for any application solely because the applicant selected the 'Internet Access: ISP Service Only (No Transport Circuit Included)' drop-down menu option and subsequently selected on its FCC Form 471 a service that delivers Internet access to its premises."