When the FCC did away with the distinction between Telecommunications Services and Internet Access when releasing the Eligible Services List, they said that the long term solution was to amend the Form 470 so that the form had only one section for Priority One. So it seems we should be expecting an updated Form 470 in the near future.
I've already made the suggestion here (and SECA has suggested to the FCC), that Funding Year should be removed from the Form 470. I even made it part of my scheme to fix the anti-compeititive mess left by the FCC's SPIN change rules.
Here's another suggestion: Somehow, the FCC needs to hide the contact information on the form, especially the email address.
Today, I got some spam completely unrelated to telecommunications or technology, sent to an email address that was on a Form 470 filed in 2010, and has not been used since. Actually, I have watched this email address be abused first by companies that got it off the Form 470, then by companies related to those companies, and then someone sold it to a spammer, and now I'm getting all kinds of email.
It's kind of a tough one, though, since service providers should be able to contact applicants easily. Maybe the new Form 470 could just provide a contact form that sends an email to the applicant, without revealing the email address. And USAC could keep a copy of those emails, which might help PIA catch applicants who are not running open competitions.
Of course, I have to mention what I would really like to see happen: abandon the Form 470!
The phishing emails keep coming. I wonder how many infected computers can be traced to the Form 470?
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