January 2002 Announcements

Please click on the topic below to view the most recent announcements:

The SLD Client Service Bureau (CSB) closed at 11:00 a.m. EST today, January 30, due to inclement weather. CSB will be closed for the remainder of the day.

We anticipate that CSB will reopen on Thursday, January 31 at 8:00 a.m. EST.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released Order FCC 01-376 on December 26, 2001 which amends its procedural rules for filing appeals. This Order became effective January 24, 2002 upon its publication in the Federal Register.

This publication notice can be found on page 3441 of the Federal Register, Vol. 67, No. 16, for Thursday, January 24, 2002. It is available on the web in both text and PDF versions as the only entry under the "Federal Communications Commission" heading on the web page for the Federal Register, Vol. 67, No. 16.

A detailed discussion of the options for filing appeals with the FCC and the SLD can be found in the Appeals Procedure posted in the Reference Area of this web site.

Please note the following:

• The SLD or the FCC must receive your appeal within 60 days of the date of the SLD decision you are appealing. (This is a change from the 30-day filing period requirement, which still applies to appeals that were required to be received on or before September 10, 2001.)
• Appeals that were due on or after September 11, 2001 and that were submitted by non-electronic means between September 11, 2001 and January 24, 2002 can be refiled electronically within 30 days of January 24, 2002 using the procedures described in the Appeals Procedure posted in the Reference Area of this web site.
• Appeals can also be filed electronically, either by electronic mail (e-mail) or by facsimile, using the procedures described in the Appeals Procedure posted in the Reference Area of this web site.

On January 25, 2002, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and Order, FCC 02-8. This NPRM initiates a review of certain rules governing the universal service support mechanism for schools and libraries. The goals of the NPRM are as follows:

• To consider changes that would fine-tune FCC rules to improve program operation;
• To ensure that the benefits of this universal service support mechanism for schools and libraries are distributed in a manner that is fair and equitable; and
• To improve FCC oversight over this program to insure that the goals of section 254 are met without waste, fraud, or abuse.

A notice will be posted on this web site when this NPRM is published in the Federal Register. Comments are due 45 days after the NPRM is published in the Federal Register. Reply comments are due 75 days after the NPRM is published in the Federal Register. Comments may be filed on paper or electronically. Instructions for filing comments may be found in paragraphs 108 – 113 of the NPRM.

The NRPM is available in the following formats:

• Word format [229 kb]
• PDF format [289 kb]
• Text format [168 kb]

The Form 471 application filing window for Funding Year 5 closed on Thursday, January 17, 2002 at 11:59 p.m. EST. All properly-completed Form 471 applications received or postmarked by the close of the application filing window will be treated as if they were simultaneously received.

The SLD continues to receive and data enter manually-submitted Forms 471 postmarked on or before January 17. Once financial information has been obtained from those forms, the SLD will be able to complete the process of analysis necessary to report the demand estimate for Funding Year 5 to the Federal Communications Commission. Upon completion of that analysis, the SLD will make the demand estimate for Funding Year 5 available on this web site.

The SLD will shortly be issuing both Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) for original funding commitments and funding commitments based on successful appeals for certain Funding Year 2 (FY2) and Funding Year 3 (FY3) applicants.

Recurring Services

Recurring services must have been delivered during the period of July 1 to June 30 of the relevant Funding Year to be eligible for reimbursement from these funds. (In other words, FY2 recurring services must have been delivered from July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2000; FY3 recurring services must have been delivered from July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001.) In order to receive reimbursement, you must file Form 486, Receipt of Service Confirmation Form, and then you or your service provider must submit invoices for eligible services delivered in the Funding Year. The Form 486 notifies the SLD to begin payment to your service provider and provides certified indication that your technology plan(s) has been approved. (See below for more information on the Form 486.)

Non-recurring Services

Any NON-RECURRING service for which funds are committed in these letters may be delivered up to September 30, 2002. Applicants whose commitments include support for non-recurring services are advised of the following:

Since these commitments come well after your application was submitted, it is possible that the Contract Expiration Date(s) indicated on your FCC Form 471 will have passed. (The Contract Expiration Date(s) indicated on your Form 471 can be found on the Funding Commitment Report attached to your FCDL.)

Contracts for non-recurring services may be voluntarily extended to coincide with the appropriate deadline for implementation. However, other contractual provisions may not be extended beyond the dates established by the Federal Communications Commission’s rules without complying with the competitive bidding process. If you have been waiting for your FCDL before you direct your service provider to start non-recurring service and if the Contract Expiration Date on your Form 471 has passed, the SLD will not be able to process an FCC Form 486 with an Actual Service Start Date after the Contract Expiration Date. If this is true for you, you should first negotiate a contract extension with your service provider and then file an FCC Form 500, Adjustment to Funding Commitment and Modification to Receipt of Service Confirmation Form, to notify the SLD of the new Expiration Date.

After submitting the Form 500, your next step will be to file the Form 486 with the SLD. The Form 486 and instructions can be found in the SLD Forms section of this web site. The Form 486, dated July, 2001 in the lower right corner, MUST be used for Funding Year 4 and for any previous Funding Years. As you complete Form 486, you should also contact your service providers to verify they have received notice from the SLD of your funding commitments. After the SLD processes your Form 486, we can begin processing invoices for those discounted services.

The Schools and Libraries Client Service Bureau will be closed on Monday, January 21, 2002 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The Client Service Bureau will resume normal operations on Tuesday, January 22, 2002 at 8:00 a.m. EST.

The Client Service Bureau will be open on the final day of the Form 471 application filing window, Thursday, January 17, from 8:00 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. EST. However, applicants are cautioned not to wait until the last few hours of the application window to file Form 471. Applicants who wait until the last minute may not have all the necessary information to complete their Form 471 within the window, and their funding may be jeopardized.

You can reach the Client Service Bureau by calling 1-888-203-8100.

Documentation of "Postmark" for Manually Submitted Form 471 Application Materials (1/15/02)

Applicants who manually submit any Form 471 application materials are advised to keep proof of the date of mailing of those materials.

• Applicants who send application materials via the United States Postal Service (USPS) mail should obtain a "Certificate of Mailing" from the USPS (Form 3817) which will give the applicant a receipt showing the postmark date;
• Applicants who send application materials via express delivery services should obtain a copy of the tracking document showing the date that the application materials were "picked up" by the delivery service;
  
  • Applicants who send application materials via a third-party service may use a dated receipt from the service who took responsibility for delivery of those materials, even if the express delivery is made by another provider; OR
• Applicants who hand-deliver application materials to the NCS Pearson facility in Lawrence, Kansas should obtain the dated receipt that will be provided to them by the guard who accepts their package.

Applicants who manually submit any Form 471 application materials are advised to keep proof of the date of mailing of those materials.

• Applicants who send application materials via the United States Postal Service (USPS) mail should obtain a "Certificate of Mailing" from the USPS (Form 3817) which will give the applicant a receipt showing the postmark date;
• Applicants who send application materials via express delivery services should obtain a copy of the tracking document showing the date that the application materials were "picked up" by the delivery service;
  
  • Applicants who send application materials via a third-party service may use a dated receipt from the service who took responsibility for delivery of those materials, even if the express delivery is made by another provider; OR
• Applicants who hand-deliver application materials to the NCS Pearson facility in Lawrence, Kansas should obtain the dated receipt that will be provided to them by the guard who accepts their package

The Schools and Libraries Division has posted one new document and two revised documents in the Reference Area of this web site.

The Free Services Advisory is a new document which cautions applicants and service providers about practices that are contrary to program rules, in areas such as price reductions, promotional offers, "free" products or services, and trade-in allowances, and provides a number of examples of such prohibited practices.

Cost Allocation Guidelines for Products and Services that Contain Eligible and Ineligible Components discusses the SLD administration of products and services that have a mixture of eligible and ineligible components. Two models are employed — "cost allocation" and "ancillary use."

The Wide Area Network (WAN) Fact Sheet discusses wide area networks and the circumstances under which components of such networks can be considered eligible for discounts under the Schools and Libraries Support Mechanism.

In order to assist applicants as we near the end of the Form 471 application filing window, the Client Service Bureau will be open on Saturday, January 12 and Sunday, January 13 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST. You can reach the Client Service Bureau Help Line by calling 1-888-203-8100.

We are re-posting the following information for your convenience as we near the close of the Form 471 application filing window:

1. Application Materials: The following materials associated with Funding Year 5 Form 471 must be received by 11:59 p.m. EST on January 17, 2002 or postmarked on or before January 17, 2002 in order for the request to receive consideration as inside the window. These materials are:
• The Form 471 itself (whether electronic or paper)
• The Block 6 certification of the Form 471 with the signature of the authorized person (whether electronic or paper)
• The Block 5 certification of any Form 470 cited in a Funding Year 5 Form 471 with the signature of the authorized person (whether electronic or paper).

 

2. Item 21 Attachment Labeling: Label your attachment as "Item 21 Attachment," and include the application number of the Form 471 it supports, or use the Applicant Form Identifier if you file manually. Be sure to label the attachment to correspond with each Block 5, Item (21) of your application. (Your Item 21 Attachment(s) is not required to be received or postmarked by January 17, 2002, but the SLD must have the Item 21 Attachment(s) to process the Form 471.)

Form 470 certification: A completed Form 470 certification is a Block 5 certification with the signature of the authorized person. Forms 470 with completed certifications submitted in a previous year meet this requirement, as do those filed for Year 5 and submitted to the SLD with a postmark date on or before January 17, 2002. Any Year 5 Form 471 Block 5 funding request based on a Form 470 whose certification has not been received by 11:59 p.m. EST on January 17, 2002 or postmarked on or before January 17, 2002 will be rejected.

January 17, 2002 deadline: Failure to make the January 17, 2002 deadline for Form 471 application materials will place the entire application outside the window, and the applicant's funding will be jeopardized.

FCC Form 471 may be filed online from the "Apply Online" section of this web site or downloaded for manual filing from the "SLD Forms" section of this web site.

For those choosing to deliver their application(s) to the NCS facility in Lawrence, Kansas, we must receive your application materials by 11:59 p.m. EST on January 17, 2002.

Following are driving directions to the NCS Pearson facility.

• As you depart KCI airport, follow all signs that indicate I-29 North or Topeka.
• Once on I-29 North, seek out the signs for I-435 West. Make sure you stay in the right lane. Once you are on I-435 West, it will change to I-435 South: you will stay on this road for approximately 25 miles.
• Stay on I-435 West, until you see signs for K-10 (Lawrence)
• Take K-10 (Lawrence) for about 20 - 25 miles.
• Once you approach Lawrence, the speed limit will reduce to 65 mph. You will need to stay in the right lane.
• You will see a blue sign indicating East Hills Business Park, make a right into the Business Park. At the stop sign you will make a right again. You are looking for a building named NCS Pearson.
• NCS Pearson is around the curve at the bottom of the hill on the right.

If you are still filing your Form 471, and are filing electronically, you must have a Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN) for each Funding Request in order to progress through Block 5 of the electronic form. Filers who do not have a SPIN will receive an electronic message as they attempt to complete the form directing them to call the SLD Client Service Bureau (CSB) for assistance.

Please note that SPIN assistance is available for those online filers who have completed the competitive bidding process, but whose service providers’ SPIN assignment has not yet been completed. (Manual filers are able to provide either the service provider name or the SPIN in order to meeting Minimum Processing Standards.) Call the CSB toll-free at 1-888-203-8100, and representatives will provide you this assistance. Remember that CSB hours of service are 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST.

The BEAR/SPIN Search function on this web site has been enhanced to provide more information to assist applicants in identifying Service Providers, including Service Provider contact information and whether companies have been determined by SLD to be eligible to provide telecommunications services under the Schools and Libraries Support Mechanism.

The BEAR/SPIN Search can be accessed from the Reference Area of this web site, either through the navigation button on the menu bar of the Reference Area or in the topic list under BEAR/SPIN Search.

Once you connect to the BEAR/SPIN Search area, you will enter the full Service Provider name, a partial name with a "wild card" option, or the SPIN (Service Provider Identification Number). You must then click the NEXT button in order to start the search.

The information returned by the search shows:

• the SPIN,
• the full Service Provider (company) name,
• the contact person, contact address and contact phone (all as indicated in the company’s most recent Form 498 filing), and
• whether the company is an eligible telecommunications provider. (A "Y" in this column indicates that this company has been determined by SLD to be eligible to provide telecommunications services under the Schools and Libraries Support Mechanism).

Note: The absence of a "Y" in the last column may simply indicate that the company has not yet been researched by the SLD to determine if it is eligible to provide telecommunications services. Applicants are reminded that they should confirm this and all other information with their Service Provider.

Service Providers are reminded that updates to this information are accomplished only through the filing of a revised Form 498. The Form 498 and Instructions are available for download from the SLD web site in the SLD Forms area.