Good news for FY2026 applicants. On May 11, 2026, the FCC announced that USAC will fully fund all eligible Category One and Category Two E-rate requests for funding year 2026. For schools, libraries, and the service providers who support them, this is welcome news.
For applicants, this means every eligible request approved for FY2026 will be funded at the full discounted amount, with no risk of proration or partial funding for either Category One or Category Two services. If you submitted a Form 471 during the filing window, you can take comfort in knowing that once your request is reviewed and approved, your funding will not be reduced because of a shortfall in available funds.
For service providers, full funding across both categories means that reimbursements for eligible services delivered to schools and libraries will not be limited by program-level budget constraints. Invoices submitted through the BEAR or SPI process for FY2026 commitments should be processed without funding concerns at the program level, once the underlying funding requests have completed review and approval.
The numbers behind the announcement show why applicants can feel confident. USAC projects total demand for FY2026 at $3.515 billion, with $1.701 billion for Category One services and $1.814 billion for Category Two services. The program’s inflation-based funding cap for FY2026 is $5.2 billion, and an additional $600 million in unused prior-year funds is available, bringing total available funding to $5.8 billion, well above projected demand.
While full funding is encouraging, applications still need to clear review, and how quickly that happens depends on how cleanly the filing was put together and how promptly USAC questions are answered. The full FCC announcement is available here.
Full funding removes the budget question. It does not remove the review question. Our Guides help applicants respond efficiently and cleanly so commitments land sooner. Schedule time to learn what it would look like to work with a Guide.
