The FCC has issued an appeal decision granting six school districts the opportunity to provide additional information to USAC to “…remove any ineligible maintenance services from their funding requests so that they can receive funding for eligible basic maintenance services…”
By this decision, the FCC is directing USAC to approve basic maintenance funding requests for services that include ineligible-types of support, so long as an applicant can isolate the costs of the ineligible services.
This decision also clarifies that USAC allow applicants to request on-site technical support if they can document that it is a more cost-effective solution than having off-site technical support. The FCC provided this example of how an on-site technician may be more cost-effective than having someone off-site to provide support:
“…For example, to the extent that an applicant is located a significant distance from the nearest providers of basic maintenance service and where it needs such services on a more frequent basis, it is possible that on-site basic maintenance may be the most cost-effective means for obtaining eligible basic maintenance service if there are additional travel charges…”
USAC has 120 days to review the applications for other compliance issues and the appeals granted involved approximately $3.2 million in funding.
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