USAC announces funding commitments for Form 471 FRNs in funding waves.

Funding commitment waves are generally issued once a week for current funding years. A wave contains Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) for all FCC Forms 471 for which USAC is ready to issue a funding decision since the last wave. Both applicants and service providers are notified of the decisions.

FCDLs are issued in waves, rather than waiting for all applications to be fully processed before issuing any decisions. There is no definitive way to know in advance which wave a particular FCDL might be in.

Only those applicants who submitted a complete Form 471 within the application window will be receiving a FCDL.

USAC will notify applicants through the EPC portal regarding funding decisions and their E-Rate discounts with a Funding Commitment Decision Letter (FCDL).

Applicants are notified weekly of each wave, shortly after the wave runs. The contact person listed on the FCC Form 471 will receive an email notifying him or her that an FCDL has been issued for a specific application. If you filed multiple FCC Forms 471 and more than one is included in the same wave, the contact person will receive an email for each form.

The FCDLs for applicants who have a commitment in the wave will show up in the Notifications section of their EPC landing page as well as in the News feed, once the FCDL is generated.

There are usually 50 or more funding waves for each funding year. If you are not awarded funding in the initial waves, hang tight and prepare for potential PIA reviews on your Form 471s.

After receiving an FCDL:

• Carefully review the FCDL for details on whether a request was approved or denied, and any adjustments that might have been made to the original request.
• If you disagree with a funding commitment decision, an appeal letter MUST be received by USAC within 60 days of the date of the decision letter.
• Make a note of the date of FCDL so you are aware of the deadline for filing a Form 486.
  • You will have 120 days after the date of your FDCL or the start of services (whichever is later) to complete the Form 486 without penalty.
  • Note that you cannot file a Form 486 for a new funding year before receiving a FCDL.
• If you want to ask vendors to discount your bills rather than paying the whole bill and submitting requests for reimbursement on your discounted portion, notify your vendors ASAP.

USAC will issue Funding Commitment Decision Letters when decisions are made about any of the requests made in your application(s). If you submitted multiple Form 471 applications for services, you will receive more than one Funding Commitment Decision Letter.