E-rate applicants are reminded that February 25 is the deadline for using a mechanism created by the Schools and Libraries Division to help consortia, school districts and library systems quickly obtain Federal Communications Commission registration numbers for all of the schools and libraries they represent.
As of November 1, all E-rate program stakeholders were supposed to obtain a FCC registration number. This number can be obtained through an easy online mechanism at http://www.fcc.gov. At the time, the SLD said E-rate applicants would eventually be expected to obtain numbers for all of the entities that they represent. It established February 25, 2005 as the deadline for applicants to use a mechanism it created to make it easier for applicants to obtain numbers for all of the sites covered by their applications. After that date, applicants will have to request numbers for each site, using the tool on the FCC site. It is expected that during the course of application review, the SLD's Program Integrity Assurance department will ask applicants to produce the required numbers. (They are not currently required on any E-rate program application form.)
The SLD said that applicants that meet the February 25 deadline will receive their registration numbers by mid-March.
The mechanism involves creating and uploading a comma delimited file in a particular file format. Further information about the submission process is available at http://www.sl.universalservice.org/whatsnew/2004/122004.asp#121304.
