E-Rate School and Library Telecom Contracts

What’s in the listing

E-Rate is the federal program that pays part of what schools and libraries spend on internet access, Wi-Fi and network equipment. The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) runs it for the FCC and publishes the applications as open data. To take part, a school or library posts a bid request (FCC Form 470), waits at least 28 days, signs a contract with a provider, and files a funding request (FCC Form 471) naming the provider, the contract and the services.

This listing has the four USAC datasets that follow those steps: the bid requests, the funding requests with provider, contract number, award date and end date, the line items under each request for every building served, with products and speeds, and the consulting firms named on applications.

Common uses: finding schools and libraries whose contracts end soon and will shop again, who holds each contract and when it ends, what each building buys and at what speed, which consultants run applications, provider share by state, and bid requests posted now.

How much is in each table

Row counts as of October 6, 2026, funding years 2016 to 2027.

Data dictionary

Four tables, 228 columns in total: BID_REQUESTS, FUNDING_REQUESTS, LINE_ITEMS and CONSULTANTS. The same tables serve the trial and the subscription. During the free trial they return Colorado applicants (BILLED_ENTITY_STATE = 'CO') for every funding year. A subscription adds every other state. Column names follow USAC’s own field names.

Data dictionary: BID_REQUESTS

One row per version of a bid request (FCC Form 470): the notice a school or library posts to ask providers for bids. 46 columns.

Data dictionary: FUNDING_REQUESTS

One row per version of a funding request (FCC Form 471): provider, contract, dates, bid count and dollars. 89 columns. Dollar columns are in US dollars.

Data dictionary: LINE_ITEMS

One row per line item of a funding request, for each school building or library branch it serves: products, speeds and buildings. A line’s cost, speed and product repeat on every building row, so do not add cost columns across rows. Only the latest state is published, with no Original or Current versions. 74 columns.

Data dictionary: CONSULTANTS

One row per consulting firm named on each version of a Form 471 application. An application can name several consultants, and one that uses none has no row. This says who an applicant named, not what the firm did or was paid. 19 columns.

Joining the tables

FUNDING_REQUESTS, LINE_ITEMS and CONSULTANTS share the Form 471 APPLICATION_NUMBER. Join FUNDING_REQUESTS to LINE_ITEMS on FUNDING_REQUEST_NUMBER, using Current funding request rows only. BILLED_ENTITY_NUMBER is the applicant in all four tables. A bid request’s APPLICATION_NUMBER is its Form 470 number, which funding requests name in FCC_FORM_470_APPLICATION. SERVICE_PROVIDER_NAME_NORM and CONSULTANT_NAME_NORM are normalized for matching to other company data.

Sample queries

After installing, set your worksheet’s database selector to the installed database and these run as written.

-- Funded contracts ending in the next 12 months in one state, with provider and consultant
WITH current_requests AS (
    SELECT *, GREATEST(contract_expiration_date,
                       COALESCE(extended_contract_expiration_date, contract_expiration_date)) AS contract_ends
    FROM SCHOOL_TELECOM_CONTRACTS.FUNDING_REQUESTS
    WHERE form_version = 'Current' AND funding_request_status = 'Funded'
),
contracts AS (
    -- A multi-year contract repeats under each funding year with the same end date: keep the latest
    SELECT * FROM current_requests
    WHERE contract_ends BETWEEN CURRENT_DATE AND DATEADD(month, 12, CURRENT_DATE)
    QUALIFY ROW_NUMBER() OVER (
        PARTITION BY billed_entity_number, service_provider_number, service_type, contract_ends
        ORDER BY funding_year DESC, funding_request_number DESC) = 1
),
consultants AS (
    -- The Current consultant list where an application has one, otherwise the Original
    SELECT application_number, LISTAGG(DISTINCT consultant_name, '; ') AS consultant
    FROM (SELECT * FROM SCHOOL_TELECOM_CONTRACTS.CONSULTANTS
          QUALIFY DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY application_number
                                     ORDER BY IFF(form_version = 'Current', 0, 1)) = 1)
    GROUP BY application_number
)
SELECT c.billed_entity_state AS state, c.applicant_organization_name AS applicant, c.service_type,
       c.service_provider_name AS provider, c.contract_number, c.contract_ends, k.consultant
FROM contracts c
LEFT JOIN consultants k ON k.application_number = c.application_number
WHERE c.billed_entity_state = 'CO'
ORDER BY c.contract_ends, applicant;

-- Largest providers by dollars requested, funding year 2026, by state
SELECT billed_entity_state AS state, service_provider_name AS provider,
       COUNT(*) AS funded_requests, SUM(funding_commitment_request) AS requested_usd
FROM SCHOOL_TELECOM_CONTRACTS.FUNDING_REQUESTS
WHERE form_version = 'Current' AND funding_request_status = 'Funded' AND funding_year = '2026'
GROUP BY state, provider
ORDER BY requested_usd DESC
LIMIT 25;

-- Bid requests posted in the last 60 days, each form counted once
SELECT application_number, billed_entity_name, billed_entity_state, applicant_type,
       certified_date_time, allowable_contract_date, category_one_description, category_two_description
FROM SCHOOL_TELECOM_CONTRACTS.BID_REQUESTS
WHERE certified_date_time >= DATEADD(day, -60, CURRENT_DATE)
QUALIFY ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY application_number
                           ORDER BY IFF(form_version = 'Current', 0, 1)) = 1
ORDER BY certified_date_time DESC;

-- Internet speeds bought for each building of one district, funding year 2026
SELECT recipient_entity_name, service_provider_name, function_type,
       download_speed, download_speed_unit, upload_speed, upload_speed_unit
FROM SCHOOL_TELECOM_CONTRACTS.LINE_ITEMS
WHERE funding_year = '2026' AND billed_entity_name ILIKE '%denver%' AND download_speed IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY recipient_entity_name;

Sourcing and attribution

Source: the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), which runs E-Rate for the FCC, through its open data portal at datahub.usac.org. Each of the four datasets is marked public domain, and Civly checks that marking on every load. Civly keeps USAC’s values as published and adds row keys, normalized provider and consultant names, and the SOURCE_ columns.

No email addresses or named contacts. Civly does not load USAC’s email columns, the fields naming a person (contact, technical contact and authorized person, and who created, certified or changed a form), or consultants’ phone numbers and ZIP codes. Email addresses typed into free text are replaced with [email removed]. Free text can still name a person, and a consultant’s name can be a sole practitioner’s own name.

This product is not endorsed by USAC or the FCC.

Permitted use: not for employment, tenant, credit, insurance or licensing decisions about a person.

For coverage or access questions: matthew@civly.ai