I'm guessing it's USAC's first step towards the bidding portal: they're "hosting an Industry Day ... to provide context on the E-Rate program, present an assessment of EPC’s current state, share USAC’s modernization direction, and hear from vendors with relevant expertise."
I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that meeting, just to watch the vendors' reaction when USAC says that they want a complete bidding portal integrated with EPC ready to go live in one year. I imagine heads nodding as USAC describes what they need to build and how it needs to connect to EPC, and how many bids it will have to handle, and then when they say, "...and it all needs to be ready to go in a year," vendors start looking at each other and holding whispered conversations.
I think it's good for applicants that USAC seems to be envisioning the bidding portal as a part of EPC, rather than a separate system, but it makes the development more complicated, which makes the timeline tighter.
As I've said before, I think we'll see USAC forced to take the option in footnote 67 of the Portal Order, and just require document submission for FY 2028-2029 rather than have the whole portal go live.
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