On April 22, 2013, the Universal Service Administrative Company released their annual demand estimate to the Federal Communications Commission. USAC’s estimate of total program demand for Funding Year 2013 is $4.986 billion, a 4.8% reduction from FY2012’s estimate of $5.237.
USAC reports that “estimated demand for Priority One funding… is $2.709 billion, an increase of 10.8 percent from last year’s demand of $2.444 billion,” and that “estimated demand for Priority Two funding… is $2.277 billion, a decrease of 18.5 percent from last year’s amount of $2.793 billion.”
According to a Funds For Learning analysis conducted earlier this month, demand for Priority 1 services exceeds the $2.38 billion FY2013 funding cap by almost $320 million.
USAC’s demand estimate letter may be found here, with a chart showing demand by funding category and discount band here.
