[Erate] Urgent News About USAC Website Availability!

[Carson, Sabrina]

Hello all,

We were notified this morning that USAC is planning a massive system migration at the end of this month. This transition, while long overdue and ultimately very beneficial, will require USAC to essentially cease all application processing for 2009 for 1 to 3 weeks, and will also delay activities related to the 2008 and 2010 funding years. Here's the breakdown of what we know about the affects at this point.


*         The outage will affect all database driven USAC webpages. This includes the data retrieval tool and the form submission pages.


*         The work is tentatively scheduled to start on the 28th or the 31st of August and their target completion date is September 14th. We will get more accurate updates as we get closer to the end of the month.


*         2009 PIA reviews, FCDL's, Selective Reviews and the like will be suspended for 2-3 weeks. This is necessary so that the database remains static during the migration.


*         2008 BEAR form processing will be suspended for approximately 1 week. USAC management has expressed that they want to keep the money flowing, and they don't want to interrupt that process for very long if they can avoid it.


*         Applicants will not be able to file or view any e-Rate forms during the outage. We are not sure yet how this will affect the 28 day waiting period for 2010 Form 470's that are filed before the outage occurs, since vendors will not be able to view 470's and search for opportunities during that time. SECA asked USAC management for guidance on this issue as soon as possible, as this could have adverse affects on districts; particularly those that will be using RFP's with their 470's.

We will keep you posted as to what we find out. USAC will also be releasing information directly to the field as it becomes available. Districts that are in a position to file their 2009 Form 486's should do so as soon as possible to avoid any potential delays. Also, 2008 BEAR forms should be submitted as soon as possible. As always, if you have any questions please contact me. Those questions that can't be answered right now will be passed on to USAC so that I can include the answers in my next post.

Sabrina Carson
e-Rate and Procurement Customer Support
Willamette Education Service District
2611 Pringle Rd SE
Salem, OR 97302
P: 503.540.4495
F: 503.540.2962

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