The FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) have announced that USAC has committed a total of $607 million in universal service support in the first wave of E-Rate Program funding for 2014. The amount contains $450 million in funding commitments for broadband, which is six times the amount approved at this time last year by USAC. On May 15, 2014, USAC will release over 14,600 funding commitment decision letters (FCDLs) notifying applicants of the $607 million in funding commitments for Priority One services (telecommunications and Internet access) for all discount bands from 20 to 90 percent. USAC recently reported that $4.825 billion in total requested funding has been estimated for schools and libraries seeking E-Rate discounts for Funding Year 2014 based on 45,731 applications received by the close of the FCC Form 471 application filing window (March 26, 2014).
