The FY 2019 Form 471 Window closed on March 27 and now applicants and service providers are waiting anxiously to hear if they will be in the first funding wave. In order for the first funding wave to be issued, the FCC must approve the PIA procedures which was done on March 27 and USAC is required to send the FCC a demand estimate which was completed on April 1. As of April 25, 2019, there are 23,515 funding requests that are identified as “application wave ready.” This is 17% of the FY 2019 funding requests.
In FY 2018, the first funding wave was released on April 20, which was 72 days prior to the start of the funding year. That first funding wave was the second earliest in the history of the E-rate program. We are now 66 days from the July 1 start of the 2019 funding year, and applicants and service providers are eager to know the status of this year’s applications.
