Change E-rate Drop-Down Menus to Ease Admin Burden, Not Deny Service, Stakeholders Urge
Minimizing confusion for E-rate applications among participants can reduce administrative burdens on the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co., said NCTA in reply comments posted to docket 13-184 through Monday. That's because applicants will be less likely to make…
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the kinds of mistakes that lead to funding denials and appeals that could be prevented if drop-down menus on form 470s were clearer, it said. The group asked the FCC to change the description of minimum and maximum service levels to minimum needs to allow growth over the full term of the form 470 funding. NTCA endorsed a proposal to create a tab for selecting specific entities and locations where service is requested (see 1911010024). CenturyLink asked the FCC to ensure the form 470 provides "appropriate specificity" about the level of bandwidth that individual institutions need to enable interested providers to "submit responsive bids." AT&T said it "agrees that applicants need to account for growth in their form 470 to avoid funding denials in the future, but the growth estimates cannot be limitless." That's because "E-rate rules do not permit service providers to submit an 'estimated' bid for service," AT&T said. The American Library Association said schools and libraries that already have fiber connectivity should be able to indicate that in the application process, so they don't later waste the time of non-fiber service providers that put in competitive bids. ALA said "leased lit fiber and non-fiber services should be two separate transport service drop-down options."