OK, now it's time to save everybody some work. The total failure of the 498 process and the difficulties in issuing PINs are making it impossible for a lot of applicants to get FY 2015-2016 BEARs in on time. This was obvious in September, and was pointed out to the FCC and USAC at the DC training.
But I understand why we haven't yet seen an automatic invoice deadline extension of all 2015-2016 FRNs. The FCC and USAC are afraid that as soon as they give an extension, applicants will take their feet off the accelerator. It makes sense in a "our convenience is more important than properly disbursing funds" kind of way to keep applicants fearful of missing that deadline for as long as possible.
But now, it's time to give the extension. Starting this week, applicants will begin flooding USAC with extension requests, which will automatically be granted. Why not save everybody some paperwork and just grant the extensions now? USAC is clearly overwhelmed, so let's not add a raft of extension requests to their plate.
And on the last day to submit extensions, both the new extension tool and Submit a Question went down: http://www.universalservice.org/sl/tools/news/default.aspx#1734
ReplyDeleteAnd still, no automatic extension.