BEAR Form Access

The FCC Form 472 (Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement (BEAR) Form) is the form applicants file if they pay for eligible equipment and/or services in full and want to request reimbursement for the non-discounted portion of costs for that eligible equipment and/or services.

On July 12, 2021, we removed the requirement for a USAC-issued Personal Identification Number (PIN) to access the BEAR Form. Applicants can now request direct access to the BEAR Form based on their One Portal login. (One Portal is USAC’s multi-factor authentication system.)

To request access to file the BEAR Form for your school, library, or consortium, take the following steps:

• Request a user account in the E-Rate Productivity Center (EPC) if you do not already have one. Your EPC account administrator can set you up as a new user with Full or Partial rights to submit an FCC Form 472.
• To access your EPC account, you must first set up login credentials in One Portal. After you have accepted your terms and conditions of use, you will be able to use EPC.
• To request access to the BEAR Form for a particular billed entity number (BEN), open a customer service case in EPC. Complete a BEAR Access Template with the required information (see below) and attach the completed template to the case.
• We will add a note to the customer service case if we need you to correct information on your template and resubmit it. Otherwise, we will process your request and send you a confirmation email granting you access.
• If you need to file BEAR Forms for more than one organization, you can ask that organization to add you as a user on their EPC organization account and then create your customer service case from that account.

Requesting access to the BEAR Form

To request access to the BEAR Form, provide the following information in the BEAR Access Template. All fields are required:

• Case Number — the number of the customer service case (the Customer Service Center will complete this field if you do not)
• Email Address — this is also your One Portal username and matches your EPC access for this BEN
• First Name — your first name
• Last Name — your last name
• Billed Entity Number (BEN) — the billed entity )independent school, independent library, school district, library system, or consortium in EPC) for which you are filing the BEAR Form
• BEN Name — the name of the billed entity
• Whether you are an authorized EPC Post-Commitment Full or Partial rights user for the BEN (yes or no)
• Title — your job title
• Employer Name — your employer’s name
• Street Address — the BEN’s street address
• City — the BEN’s city
• State — the BEN’s two-letter state code (e.g., OH, not Ohio)
• Zip 5 — the BEN’s five-digit zip code (note that you can enter a leading zero for five-digit zip codes that start with zero)

To create the customer service case:

• From the Actions tab in EPC, choose “Contact Us.”
• The fields Nickname, Description, Topic, and Subtopic are required.
  • Create a nickname that will be easy for you to remember.
  • Provide a short description of the action you want us to take.
  • For Topic, choose “FCC Form 472 – BEAR.”
  • For Subtopic, choose “Other.”
• Attach the completed “BEAR Access Template”

After you create the customer service case and attach the completed template, USAC will process your request and then email a notification to the email address you provided.

Updating your existing BEAR Form information

We use the information you supply on the BEAR Access Template to populate certain fields on the BEAR Form. If the information is incorrect, you can ask us to update it.

To do this, open a customer service case in EPC and provide the corrected information. We can then update your record to feature the correct information on any future BEAR Forms you file.

Removing access to the BEAR Form

For a user who no longer needs access to file BEAR Forms, we can remove that user’s access at the user’s or account administrator’s request.

To do this, open a customer service case in EPC and provide the details. If you are not the user whose access is being removed, please include a short statement explaining the reason for the request (e.g., the employee has been terminated or is no longer assigned/required to file BEAR Forms). There are two steps account administrators must complete when removing BEAR invoicing access: 1) remove the access from EPC and 2) submit a request for BEAR access change.  We will remove that user’s the access to file BEAR Forms for your billed entity. The user may still have access to file BEAR Forms for other billed entities, and that access will not be affected with this request to remove access for your billed entity.