MBS E-RATE IMPROVEMENTSMike Chalk

Phil Goble

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E-Rate is the commonly used name for the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund, which is administered by the  Universal Service Administration Company (USAC) under the direction of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The program provides discounts to assist most schools and libraries in the United States (and US territories) to obtain affordable telecommunications and Internet access.

WHAT IS E-RATE?

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MBS now includes support to assist you in managing your E-Rate schools and libraries.

Customer Care will store E-Rate information via CDFs.

A discount code will be used to calculate the E-Rate discount. This discount code will be triggered by a charge code.

The invoice will include E-Rate information, including the responsibility amounts for Universal Service and the school or library.

QRT queries can be written to obtain E-Rate totals.

ADDING E-RATE SUPPORT IN MBS

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CUSTOMER CARE CDFS

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FRN: Funding request number (printed on invoice).

Form 471: The number on Form 471, required for submitting payment requests via Form 474 (printed on invoice).

E-Rate Method: SPI (Service Provider Invoice) or BEAR (Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement) affects the school/library responsibility amount on invoice.

E-Rate Discount Rate: Percent discount (0.0 – 1.0).

E-Rate Yearly Cap Amount: Cap amount of the funding request.

E-Rate Bill-to Service: Can be defined at an individual service or account, points to a service ID on another account (for redirecting usage revenue and invoice display).

E-RATE CDFS EXPLAINED

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MBS will calculate the discounted amount due by the school, based on the eligible charges and the E-Rate discount percent on the account.

A charge code tied to a rate package that contains the special E-Rate discount (code must start with ERATE…) will trigger the discount.

Discounts can be configured to affect specific revenue items.

The discount amount is calculated during billing (and stored), but will not affect the account balance.

The funding request cap amount will be enforced, meaning the discount will automatically stop when the cap is reached.

Taxes included in Discount.

E-RATE DISCOUNT

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E-RATE INVOICE CHANGES – PAGE 1

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E-RATE INVOICE CHANGES – FRN SUMMARY

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The “E-Rate Bill-to Service” CDF gives you the ability to redirect the usage (display and charges) from one service or account to another account.

Some of our companies have school districts that fund “long distance” on a separate FRN.

Recurring, non-recurring, and prorate charges will stay with the account that “owns” the service.

E-RATE USAGE REDIRECTION

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CDG can build QRT queries to assist you and your schools/libraries with their reporting requirements.

Sample queries:

Monthly summary by account / FRN

Yearly summary

Cap totals

Etc.

E-RATE REPORTING - QRT

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