The USAC Schools and Libraries Committee held its quarterly board meeting today. The Board discussed the FCC's recent appeal decisions that have been favorable to the E-rate stakeholder community. Mel Blackwell, Acting Vice President SLD, stated that the Bishop Order as well as other recent decisions has caused a "fundamental shift in the way we do business." The Board talked about how USAC will try to work with the various stakeholders to get them funding commitments as opposed to finding reasons to deny them. The SLD has asked USAC for approximately $3.5 million to increase their resources to respond to the recent FCC decisions. The SLD will also create a new Training Program Manager to help educate schools and service providers on how to succeed.
FCC Release Draft Eligible Services List
The FCC today released the "Draft Eligible Services List" for the 2007 Funding Year. Each year the SLD submits a draft list for the FCC to review and then issues the list for stakeholders to comment. Unfortunately, the turnaround time is short for those stakeholders who wish to comment. Once the FCC reviews comments and publishes the final Eligible Services List then USAC can open the Form 471 filing window 60 days from that release.
Comment Date: August 4th, 2006
Reply Comment Date: August 14th, 2006
The Draft Eligible Services List can be viewed at Draft Eligible Services List
