During the first four days of the FY2017 filing window, 636 applicants, representing schools, libraries, and consortia in nearly every state and territory, submitted E-rate funding applications totaling almost $25 million. The following map illustrates the location and relative funding request amounts of these early filers.
![](https://www.fundsforlearning.com/docs/2017/03/FY2017%20E-rate%20Funding%20Requests.png)
This first round represents many more applicants, and slightly more funding, than was submitted during the opening four days of the FY2016 filing window. (94 applicants submitted $23.3 million in requests at the beginning of last year.)
In 2016, there were 24,096, applicants who submitted requests totaling more than $3.6 billion. A similar number of applicants are expected to participate again this year, with more applications submitted near the deadline, which this year is May 11, 2017.