Today the Federal Communications Commission authorized USAC to open the E-rate Funding Year 2008 Form 471 Application filing window to open on November 7,2007. This move allows USAC to begin accepting funding requests for the 2008 E-rate Funding Year on that date.
As of this writing, USAC has not announced the closing date of the Funding Year 2008 Form 471 Application filing window.
The FCC also released the Eligible Services List for Funding Year 2008. The Eligible Services List, or ESL, provides guidance to applicants and service providers about the types of services and products which will be considered eligible for E-rate discounts in the coming funding year. Notable changes over last year's list include:
- Centrex service will be treated as a basic telephony service, which will allow applicants to request discounts on the service without having to have a technology plan.
- Broadband of Power Lines (BPL) and BPL-enabled Internet access services are added as eligible telecommunications and internet access services, respectively.
- Clarifications of the eligible components of a web hosting service are made
