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Sunday, September 14, 2014

470 roulette

Say, here's a little information on when we'll see the Form 470.  It appears the FCC submitted it to OMB for approval Friday.  When will we see it?  Well, apparently they requested emergency processing, hoping to shorten the timeline I gave earlier, and get approval by November 3.   That will get us a temporary (six-month) approval to give the FCC time to file a regular request and get permanent approval.

Will there be any comment period for the new form?  Since it's an "emergency" request, the OMB can waive or modify the comment periods.  My exhaustive research (10 minutes on Google and an OMB FAQ) has not determined whether it even needs to be published in the Federal Register.  They have time to do a 30-day comment period and still get the approval by November 3, but I don't think we'll see one.  Let's hope there isn't anything major that the FCC overlooked in putting together the form, because the OMB isn't likely to catch it.

Once the new forms are approved, how long will it take USAC to go live?  For the 471, they'll have a couple of months before the window opens, but people are already looking for the new 470.  I hope that the FCC has shared the new 470 with USAC already.  I will make a bold prediction: the new 470 will be available on November 12th.  Anyone else want to make a guess?

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