Universal Service Administrative Company

USAC projects a consolidated budget of $60.24 million for the third quarter of 2020. Direct costs for all support mechanisms total $35.75 million. Joint and common costs (including billing, collection, and disbursement activities) total $24.49 million.

On May 9, 2020, USAC issued the first wave of Funding Year (FY) 2020 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs). FY2020 Wave 1 included almost $680.7 million in funding commitments, and funding decisions on over 53% of the 38,207 applications that were received on or before the close of the FY2020 application filing window on April 29, 2020. Funds for Learning notes that the wave came only ten days after the close of the filing window, and was a record-setting funding wave by all accounts:   

The Universal Service Administrative Company’s estimate of demand for the Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Mechanism discounts (also known as the E-rate) for Funding Year (FY) 2020 is $2.91 billion, of which $1.74 billion is for Category 1 services (mainly broadband internet access service) and $1.17 billion is for Category 2 services (mainly internal connections).

The total projected collected interstate and international end-user revenue base to be used in determining the contribution factor for the Universal Service support mechanisms for the first quarter of 2020 is $11,129,976,956.

The Universal Service Administrative Company used airborne drones to measure mobile wireless coverage in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria. USAC’s vendor conducted a total of 20 drone tests in Puerto Rico; one of which was overlapped by a drive test in order to compare relative performance. The remaining 19 drone tests were conducted in impassible areas. Within Puerto Rico, the test evidence suggests that drones are capable of quickly surveying smaller areas, but may not be as useful for surveying larger areas in a cost-effective manner at this time.

On June 18, 2018, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) and the Federal Communications Commission deployed the National Verifier (NV) system, kicking off the initial Soft Launch phase in six states. Since then, USAC has launched in ten additional states/territories across two separate launches. States and territories in the June 2018 and October 2018 launches are in the Full Launch phase, meaning carriers are required to use the NV system. In addition, consumers have access to use the system in these states.