E-rate Funding Eligibility

ShoutPoint voice-over-IP (VoIP) and voice mail services are eligible for E-rate funding. E-rate is a program established by the FCC that provides discounted services to eligible schools and libraries. It is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), a not-for-profit corporation.          ShoutPoint SPIN is 143032646.

ADDED VALUE OF ELIGIBLE SHOUTPOINT SERVICES

Most ShoutPoint customers use our services to replace expensive T-1 lines used for telephone connectivity with more cost effective interconnected VoIP lines. These VoIP lines may be used for any and all educational purposes, such as teacher outgoing lines, parent call-in lines, and uses such as attendance monitoring and emergency notifications. Importantly, while the lines themselves are eligible for E-rate funding, many additional services that schools and libraries may use are not.

In general, E-rate will fund the conduit for communication, such as T-1 or VoIP lines, but will not fund services related to the content that flows over the communication lines. The ShoutPoint for Schools bundle service is E-rate eligible as a Voice-over-IP solution. Should you desire services such as Broadcast Messaging or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) which are not eligible, they will be invoiced separately for your convenience. Your ShoutPoint sales representative can provide recommendations about your service requirements and guidance about the E-rate eligibility of all of our service offerings.

HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS

As a potential vendor of E-rate eligible services, ShoutPoint may only provide "vendor-neutral" guidance about E-rate during an applicant's required competitive bidding process. ShoutPoint SPIN is 143032646. If you are interested in the type of service that ShoutPoint offers, we offer the following suggestions for submitting FCC Form 470 to USAC. (Form 470 is used to alert potential vendors that you are seeking bids for E-rate eligible products or services.)

  • Indicate that you are seeking funding for Telecommunications Services and Internet Access services. This will allow you to obtain bids from the highest number of potential vendors for T-1 lines and interconnected VoIP lines in order to compare cost and service benefits of each technology approach.

  • A possible general description for the desired Telecommunications Services would be "T-1 or other digital transmission lines (or interconnected VoIP lines) for telephone connectivity." This serves only as an example, because applicants can have widely varying needs. If a voicemail service is being sought, this should be indicated on Form 470 as well. Indicate the quantity of voice lines desired.

  • A possible description for the desired Internet Access services would be "interconnected VoIP lines for telephone connectivity." If a voicemail service is being sought, this again should be indicated in the Internet Access section of the Form 470. Indicate the number of VoIP lines desired. (VoIP services and voicemail services can be funded in either the Telecommunications or the Internet Access category, while T-1 and other digital transmission lines used for traditional telephone service must be funded in the Telecommunications Services category.)

  • Should applicants wish to choose multi-year contracts and/or contracts with voluntary extensions, E-rate rules require that the applicant check the appropriate boxes on the FCC Form 470. By checking the appropriate boxes for this on Form 470 (Item 7b), an applicant leaves their options open to either enter into a long term contract, or not.


The Selection Process

Once bids have been received for the desired service, applicants must choose the bid that is overall the most cost effective. This selection process may consider factors such as vendor experience, service reliability, compatibility with existing systems and other such considerations, but the cost of the service must have the highest weight in the evaluation. For example, here is an evaluation process that could be used:

Factor
Weight
Price of the ELIGIBLE goods and services
 30%
Prior experience
 25%
Other cost factors (including price of ineligible goods and services, price of changing providers, price for breaking contract, etc)
 20%
Management capability
 15%
Local Vendor
10%
Total
100%



(Source: USAC website at http://www.usac.org/sl/applicants/step04/construct-evaluation.aspx.) This is an example only. Applicants should determine the criteria that are important to them in constructing an evaluation of competing bids, but be sure to weight price more highly than any other factor. The criteria for evaluating competing bids should be developed by the applicant based on their needs, and not by ShoutPoint or any other bidder.

An applicant must wait at least 28 days from the date that the FCC Form 470 is posted on the USAC website before signing a contract. This allows competing vendors a full opportunity to submit bids. (If an RFP is issued, then the 28-day wait period must include the time that the RFP is available, as well.) Once the vendor is selected and a contract is signed, the winning vendor can assist the applicant with filing their FCC Form 471, to include a clear and complete description of the specific services and pricing so that the funding request can be efficiently evaluated by USAC.