Sabrina Scott is the Utah State E-Rate Coordinator for the Utah Education Network.
The E-Rate Program is a critical funding component for Utah schools’ and libraries’ broadband Internet access, generating roughly $20 million per year to help pay for services to these institutions.
This year, as the State E-Rate Coordinator at the Utah Education Network (UEN), I worked with the Utah Broadband Project to offer four E-Rate Applicant Training Sessions and one Vendor Applicant Training Session. The training sessions were held in preparation for the upcoming 2013 annual E-Rate filing window.
The sessions were well attended with approximately forty-five attendees, representing both urban and rural E-Rate eligible Utah entities from eleven school districts, thirteen charter schools, four head start programs, and two private schools, along with nine broadband service providers and four vendors.
The timing of these sessions coincided nicely with the announcement from the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) last week of the Form 471 filing window opening and closing dates for 2013. The Form 471 filing window dates for 2013 are December 12, 2012 at 10 am to March 14, 2013 at 9:59pm MST. For more news and updates from USAC, visit their website.
If you were unable to attend any of our fall sessions, please take advantage of the training videos posted on the UEN website or for more comprehensive training information, handouts, and reference materials, please visit the USAC website. USAC has also published their Online Learning Library, which includes several training resources. For general information and for Utah specific data and assistance, including our contact information at UEN, please visit our website.
We look forward to another successful E-Rate filing year for Utah applicants. Thanks to all who registered and attended our sessions and special thanks to the Utah Broadband Project for their invaluable assistance.
Happy Holidays!