Complete Registrations

When requesting funding on the ECF FCC Form 471, applicants must indicate whether the applicant or the service provider will submit the requests for reimbursement in the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program. If the service provider will be submitting the requests for reimbursement, they will be required to complete the steps below. Applicants or service providers who will not be requesting reimbursement through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program are not required to perform these steps.

• Register in the System for Awards Management system (SAM.gov). Applicants and service providers who will be submitting requests for reimbursement (FCC Forms 472/474) must have an active registration with SAM.gov, which provides the bank account number to which the reimbursements will be disbursed. USAC recommends that you search SAM.gov to see if your entity is already registered and to ensure the registration is current, as it expires annually.

  Once you register in SAM.gov, you are automatically assigned a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). You can find it by signing into SAM.gov and selecting the Entity Management widget in your Workspace or by signing in and searching entity information. On April 6, 2022, the FCC released Public Notice DA 22-371 which announces the transition from the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number to the Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) effective April 4, 2022. For questions about the DUNS to UEI transition, please visit the Contact USAC page to contact CSC.

  Please be aware that both the TIN/EIN that was used for SAM.gov registration and the FCC Registration Number TIN/EIN of the entity who will be invoicing must match to ensure that banking information is accurate and can be validated. To verify that the FCC Registration Number provided results in an EIN match, or if you would like further assistance in updating the FCC Registration Number, please contact (877)-480-3201, (Monday-Friday 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. ET), or email: CORES@fcc.gov.

• File the FCC Form 498 (Service Providers Only). File the FCC Form 498 in order to gain access to the ECF Portal to request reimbursement. Please note that the form will ask for banking information, however, USAC will rely upon that which is stored in SAM.gov for disbursement purposes. After you complete this form, USAC will assign a unique nine digit number, or 498 ID, and will set up a user name and password for you to access the E-File system, a portal that allows you to update your FCC Form 498 online and set up permissions for other users in your company. Some of the contact information on the FCC Form 498 can be searched using the SPIN Search tool, so it is helpful to keep your information current in case another program participant needs to contact you.
• Accessing the ECF Portal (Service Providers only). Once you receive the 498 ID, you will automatically be granted to the E-Rate Productivity Center (EPC). If you are a new Service Provider, you must log in to the EPC and sign the terms and conditions and wait 10 minutes to be granted access to the ECF Portal.