Universal Service Administrative Company Schools and Library Division Web Site Tour and Data Retrieval November 4,

Overview of E-Rate process, training materials, newsletters in this area. Breaking news here. Menu for program areas here. 2

To subscribe to weekly newsletters, click on “Outreach and Training”, then click on “Schools & Libraries News Briefs” then click on “Subscribe”. You can sort newsletter articles by “Topic” or just sort by the actual “Newsletter Date”. 3

Click on “Apply Online” to get to online forms page. 4

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Form 470 To apply – Click on either form 470 interview or create form 470 link. To review a prior year’s application or another district’s application – Click on search posted. If you are ready to finish a form started earlier – Click on continue incomplete. If you completed a form earlier and now have your PIN number and would like to certify your form online or would like to print off a certification page to sign and mail in – Click on certify complete. 6

To look at form 470’s that have been posted – select “Search Posted” from apply online page and then key in criteria. Once your criteria has been entered, click on “Next”. 7

Click on a radio button for the form you would like to review, then click on “Review Selected Application”. 8

You can then see the entire form 470 and see what types of services were requested and who the contact person is at the school district/library. You can also find the date the form was certified and the allowable contact date for your own application! 9

Form 471 To apply – Click on either form 471 interview or create form 471. If you’re now ready to finish a form started earlier – Click on continue incomplete. If you have completed the form and now have your PIN number and would like to certify the form online or would like to print off a certification page to sign and mail in – Click on certify complete. If you want to look at a prior application or an application from another school – Click on display. If you wan to check on the status of your application – Click on application status. Item 21 attachment – Option to file the attachment through the file online process. 10

To check the status of your application, click on “Application Status” from apply online page and then type your BEN into this screen. You will get the following screen with your status along with a definition of what that status means. 11

If you would like to print out a prior application or review an application by a neighboring district, you can click on the “Display” link from the apply online page. Then enter form 471# and click on current, if funding has been committed, or original if it has not. This gives you the opportunity to see the discount calculation, the service provider selected and other data. 12

Shows basic information on first screen. You can select a specific block of information or display entire application to see all blocks. 13

Form 486 To apply – Click on either form 486 interview or create form 486. If you’re now ready to finish a form started earlier – Click on continue incomplete. To review a prior year’s application or another district’s application – Click on display-will need 486 number and security code. If you completed the form and now have your PIN number and would like to certify online or would like to print off a certification page to sign and mail in – Click on certify complete. 14

BEAR – Form 472 To file your BEAR form on-line – Click on BEAR online under the utilities bar – Then sign into the login page BEN = Billed Entity # PIN = You may have a separate PIN # for BEAR forms Then enter your address and last name then click on login 15

Form starts pre-populated with this information. Enter the SPIN number and a district assigned form number. Each service provider will need their own BEAR form. If you have multiple FRNs for one provider, you only need to complete one BEAR form! 16

Form 471 # can be found on your FCDL. To make it a 10 digit number start the number with four zeros. FRN can be found on your FCDL. To make it a 10 digit number start the number with three zeros. For reoccurring services enter the first date of the term you are billing for in column 12, for internal connections, enter delivery date in #13. Gross eligible services go in this cell. Be sure to take out items ineligible items and personal phone calls from cell phone bills. This cell contains your gross eligible services times your discount percent OR your funding commitment. WHICHEVER IS SMALLER. 17

Read and affirm your compliance!!! Add contact information in this area. Add account numbers or other information that would identify YOUR bills to YOUR service provider – then click on certify and submit. 18

Your search results show up here – Click on “Invoice ID” to get a summary. To track BEAR forms, enter your criteria then click on “Search”. 19

Top half of page includes SLD assigned Invoice ID, date created and date last updated. 20

Shows your submission/certification date here. Shows service provider’s certification date here. 21

If the e-certification process does not work, you can click on “Printable Page” and print the form out to fax to your service provider for signatures. 22

This area of the web page includes: Link to review funding commitments. Link to submit a question. Link to review the latest news. Link to print out paper copies and instructions on all forms. Link to reference library. Link to data retrieval system. Link to file a whistleblower alert. Link to file a complaint. 23

You can find information on selected topics in the reference area. Click on the alphabet letter on top and it brings you to a list of that letter’s topics. 24

In search tools, you can do things like search for form deadlines, search for service provider contact information and use the data retrieval tool. 25

You can use the SPIN Contact Search to find contact information for service providers, to see if they are an eligible telecommunications provider and to see if they are up to date on their SPAC…. Just type in their name or a portion of their name with a wild card or their SPIN number and click on next. 26

You can see their contact person and their telephone number. If they are an eligible telecom provider they will have a Y in the second to the last column. They are required to file a SPAC for annually. Did your service provider file one this year? 27

You should review this section of the web site before you select your service provider just to make sure they are not suspended or disbarred from the program. 28

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Data Retrieval Things you can get from the data retrieval tool: Total requests by BEN, Service Provider, State. Total commitments by same categories. Total funding paid out. Has form 486 been filed? Has SLD paid out funds on a commitment? What is the last day I can submit a BEAR form? 31

Click on Search tools and when that screen comes up, click on “Data Retrieval Tool”. Then when you see this screen, click on “Data Retrieval Tool” again! 32

This is the criteria window. You can select by state, billed entity number or service provider. Once you’ve entered your criteria, click on “Select Data Points” below. 33

34 Once you’ve selected your datapoints, click on ‘Build Data File”.

Click open here. Click yes here. 35

Columns A and B show us the 471 application number and funding request number. Columns C and D represent the applicant. Columns E is the service provider. If there is a date in column F, it means a form 486 has been submitted and a service start date is on file. Column G show the last day to submit a BEAR form or a service provider invoice. Column H shows us the original amount requested and Column I shows the actual amount committed. Column J shows the invoice method. SPI stands for service provider invoice. “Not Set” would mean that a BEAR form or SPI have not yet been filed. Column K is the amount paid out on that FRN. If cell holds a $0.00 (and the FRN was funded) it means invoice was denied and should be resubmitted with corrections. If the cell is blank a form has not been submitted for this FRN.

This is the report for the entire state of Minnesota for Fiscal Year 2010 (E-Rate funding year 2009) run on 11/02/2010. I sorted it by the first BEAR deadline of 10/28/2010 and pulled out those requests with deadlines after that date. You can see that we still have over $3 million dollars outstanding, which is about 17% of the amount committed on these FRN’s. 37

A Quick Plug for Form 500….. 38

WHY Form 500? What is it for? – To change your service start date. – To change your contract expiration date. – To reduce funding. – To cancel funding. It’s not required by any rules, but…. – Unused funds get included in “roll over” funding earlier. Things to consider…. – Complete the form ONLY if you know you will not be using funds as you can NOT get them back once form is filed. – It’s the shortest form they have, only 3 pages!!! 39

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There is a LOT of data on the USAC/SLD web site. Please spend some time on the site to learn more. If you have questions on what data can be found, please feel free to e- mail Cindy at or Mary at 41