Getting Started
Overview
E-Rate FYI is an E-Rate search, intelligence and compliance workspace. It puts USAC's public E-Rate data, a set of AI helpers and day-to-day compliance tools in one console, so you can answer E-Rate questions without digging through raw open-data portals or spreadsheets.
Who it's for
- School districts and libraries — check Category 2 budget, verify equipment eligibility, draft Form 470 language and keep compliance records
- E-Rate consultants — profile client districts, track budgets across many clients and keep up with deadlines
- Service providers and resellers (VARs) — find Form 470 bids, track a sales pipeline, and see awards, invoicing and disbursements by provider
- Manufacturers — measure E-Rate demand for your products by territory, compare brands side by side and see which providers resell them
How the console is organized
After you sign in, everything lives in the console. The left sidebar groups the tools into five sections: Search, Automate, Compliance, Intelligence and Tools. Press ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) at any time to jump to a tool by name.
Search
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| District C2 Lookup | Find districts and libraries by state, city, BEN or name and see their Category 2 budget, funds used and funds available |
| Form 470 Search | Filter Form 470 competitive bids by geography, application details, service requests and entity attributes, then download the full result set |
| Form 471 Search | Search Form 471 funding requests (FRNs), including line-item filters for service category, service type, function and quantity, with a full-result export |
| SPIN Tracker | Look up service providers by name or SPIN, then open View intel for a provider's awards dashboard |
Automate
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Eligibility Checker | Paste a bill of materials and get an eligibility verdict for each part number |
| Form 470 Generator | Generate vendor-neutral Form 470 service descriptions and full procurement RFP documents |
| Funding Matcher | Look up a district's C2 budget, discount rate and Form 470s in its state, with AI funding-strategy suggestions |
Compliance
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Record Storage | Store and organize compliance documents such as FCDLs, invoices and contracts |
| Asset Tracker | Track E-Rate funded equipment against its 5-year useful life |
| Deadline Calendar | Track USAC filing deadlines alongside your own dates |
Intelligence
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Service Provider Intel | Provider Intel looks up any provider by name or SPIN (awards by funding year, top manufacturers resold); Bid Prospecting finds Form 470 bids; My Pipeline tracks the bids you're pursuing |
| Territory Intel | Analyze E-Rate spend in a territory by product type and funding year, and compare up to six manufacturers side by side |
| Market Report | The full funding-year applicant demand report: applicant counts, top vendors, brands, providers and applicants, and C1/C2 breakdowns, with Excel and PDF export |
| Disbursements | Follow FRN awards through invoicing and USAC disbursement, filtered by manufacturer, service provider, service category, state and more |
| My Clients | Keep your client districts in one place with their C2 budgets |
Tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| AI Q&A | Ask E-Rate eligibility, compliance and timeline questions; conversations are saved |
| E-Rate Calculator | Estimate a 5-year Category 2 budget, the E-Rate discount amount and the out-of-pocket share |
Where the data comes from
The search and intelligence tools are built on USAC Open Data, the public E-Rate datasets USAC publishes: Form 470 bids, Form 471 applications and funding requests (FRNs), FRN line items, invoices and disbursements, the service provider (SPIN) registry and the C2 budget tool.
- Search tools query USAC directly when you run a search.
- Territory Intel, Provider Intel and Disbursements pull from USAC and reuse results for a few hours to stay fast.
- Market Report is rebuilt nightly from a full copy of the Form 471 data, loaded after USAC's daily refresh.
Most intelligence tools show when USAC last updated the data, so you can see how current the numbers are. See Data Sources & Freshness in the Reference section for the full details.
The AI Q&A assistant is grounded in the FY2026 Eligible Services List (DA 25-1069), the USAC E-Rate Glossary and USAC training materials.
Figures in E-Rate FYI are for information and planning. They are not a USAC funding determination. Confirm budgets, eligibility and commitments in EPC before you file or invoice.
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