There are many E-rate deadlines that occur each year and the next important deadline that applicants and service providers need to be reminded of is the September 30, 2018 installation deadline. Applicants have a 12-month cycle from July 1 through June 30 to utilize their recurring services such as Internet access; however, have there is additional time to complete on-campus infrastructure projects known as Internal Connections. Typically, schools and libraries have a 15-month cycle to finish Internal Connections project. For example, for FY 2017, the Funding Year started July 1, 2017 and ended June 30, 2018, but Internal Connections projects have until three months later, September 30, 2018, to be completed.
In some cases, if an applicant received a Funding Decision Commitment Letter (FCDL) after March 1 of the funding year, the applicant and service provider will automatically receive an additional year to complete the installation work. There also are other circumstances that can lead to a service end date extension. Therefore, the current September 30, 2018, deadline includes projects from FY2017, as well as prior years.
Below is a breakdown of the number of schools and libraries facing the September 30 deadline who have a FY2015, FY2016 or FY2017 deadline. More than 8,000 applicants have a total of $894 million in funded projects at stake.
- There are 303 FY 2015 applicants that have an installation deadline of September 30, 2018 totaling $131 million;
- There are 1,474 FY 2016 applicants that have an installation deadline of September 30, 2018 totaling $303 million;
- There are 6,610 FY 2017 applicants that have an installation deadline of September 30, 2018 totaling $460 million
If an applicant needs more time to complete the installation a Form 500 will need to be submitted before September 30. Further information on this deadline can be found on the USAC website here.
