Preparing for the Form 470

HWC Consultants assists a variety of educational and library institutions and other organizations across the country with comprehensive telecom consulting. We provide E-Rate and California Teleconnect Fund consulting services for Category One and Two (E-Rate only) expenses. The following will help you in your preparation for E-Rate’s Form 470. 

The Form 470 is the first form that can be filed by a school or library in the E-Rate application process. Essentially, it is a 28-day window during which schools can put out a request for proposals for both Category 1 and Category 2 services, and service providers can respond to those proposals by submitting bids.

Service types fall into one of two funding categories. Category One services include data transmission services and/or Internet access. This service type covers broadband connectivity (Internet access and wide-area networks) (e.g., fiber, coax, etc.). This service type also includes leased lit fiber, leased dark fiber, and self-provisioned broadband networks. 

Category Two services include Internal Connections (equipment), Managed Internal Broadband Services, and Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections. Eligible products (Internal Connections) include items such as switches, firewalls, access points, and cabling. Third party services (Managed Internal Broadband Services and Basic Maintenance of Internal Connections) include the repair, operation, management, and monitoring of eligible Internal Connections components. 

For Category One, you first need to determine whether any of your services require a Form 470. Are you new to E-Rate with an existing contract that wasn’t procured through E-Rate? Do you have any month-to-month services? Is your service contract expiring with no contract extensions available, or do you want to see what else is out there in terms of pricing and service delivery? If so, you may need to go out to bid. 

For Category Two, you may or may not need a Form 470. For example, you will always need to go out to bid for new Internal Connections requests, but you may have already gone out to bid previously for a multi-year Managed Internal Broadband Services contract that you signed in a prior year. So, what does your service request list look like? Do you need a Bill of Materials for your Form 470, or is your request straightforward enough to put everything in the narrative? (We will be doing an upcoming blog on Bills of Material best practices.) 

Other questions to consider when creating a Form 470 include potential procurement requirements (for your state or local jurisdiction, school board, etc.) and whether an RFP is required. Make sure to research this information so you know whether you are compliant.

Additionally, you want to design your Form 470 so that it is specific enough that bidders know what to provide, but expansive enough that you have the flexibility to make choices about what you want to ultimately proceed with regarding your service requests. 

If you’re planning on hosting vendor “walkthroughs” (e.g., for a cabling project), or if there are other requirements you’ll be evaluating bidders on, then it must be posted in the Form 470. For example, in the case of a walkthrough, you would want to list the date, time and if the walkthrough is required in the Form 470.

Lastly, know the E-Rate competitive bidding rules and regulations. Research them and ensure that you are following them faithfully, including developing a bid matrix to compare bids, save bidding documents and communications, etc. Remember that competitive bidding is 28 days long - so you should not sign any new contracts before the Allowable Contract Date (ACD). Remember to factor this 28-day window into your E-Rate application timeline, so that you are not late in filing your Form 471. We’ll be discussing this more in the next two blog posts.

If you need more information, or tailored E-Rate consulting services, reach out to HWC Consultants!