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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black">The following information was distributed by Bob Bocher, a library representative to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC)
board, about the E-Rate program:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black">2017 form 471 filing window: An administrative window will open very soon to enable applicants to update their EPC profile information. (Not all applicants will have EPC updates. See the last several News Briefs
for information on this process.) This admin window will be open for 3-4 weeks. The 471 filing window will not open until this admin window closes. So doing the timing on this you can see that the 471 window will likely not open until very late Feb.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black">2016 application update: As of Jan. 19, just over 91% of the 46,126 form 471s for 2016 were completed. But there is a lag on fiber applications in that just 42% (303 form 471s) have been completed. USAC's target
is to complete 50 fiber applications per week. Using this target it will be late March/early April before all fiber applications are completed. (FYI: USAC is in the final process of hiring a person with fiber expertise. This should help for 2017 applications.)</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To stay up-to-date with E-Rate news, consider signing up for USAC’s Weekly News Brief:
<a href="http://www.usac.org/sl/tools/news-briefs/Default.aspx">http://www.usac.org/sl/tools/news-briefs/Default.aspx</a>. At this link you can find a breakdown of news briefs by topic as well as the ability to sign up to receive them in your in-box.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A">Sonya Schryer Norris<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A">Library of Michigan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A">702 W. Kalamazoo St.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A">PO Box 30009<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A">Lansing, MI 48909<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A">517-373-4457<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan"><span style="color:#0563C1">http://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.mel.org/"><span style="color:#0563C1">http://www.mel.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A"><a href="http://www.michlibrary.org/"><span style="color:#0563C1">http://www.michlibrary.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#44546A"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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