Annual ETC Certification
In order to participate in the High Cost program and receive High Cost support, a provider must be certified as an eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) by Oct. 1 annually under 47 CFR Section 54.314.
This federal regulation requires state utility commissions to certify that carriers under their jurisdiction are eligible to receive High Cost support in their states and used all support collected in the proceeding calendar year only to provide, maintain and upgrade the facilities for which the support was intended and will do the same in the coming calendar year.
Carriers that self certify – ETCs not subject to state jurisdiction – must certify that they used all High Cost support collected in the proceeding calendar year only to provide, maintain and upgrade the facilities for which the support was intended and will do the same in the coming calendar year.
The deadline for state regulators to submit the annual ETC certification for all carriers under their jurisdiction to USAC, and for carriers that self certify to submit their own certification to USAC, is Oct. 1. States and carriers that self certify are no longer required to submit the annual ETC certification separately to the FCC. (See FCC 23-87, para. 134)
How to File
States may submit the annual ETC certification to USAC through the 54.314 system, which is accessible through USAC’s E-File system. State officials may also send the certification to USAC by email, fax or mail, although USAC highly recommends filing online through the 54.314 system.
Carriers that self certify must submit the annual ETC certification to USAC using the 54.314 system.
In order to obtain access privileges to the 54.314 system in E-File – or change the representative who has access – state officials and carriers that self certify should contact the High Cost Division at HCCerts@usac.org to request an authorization form. See USAC’s Multifactor Authentication Troubleshooting FAQs for help logging into E-File.
States that file by mail must submit a letter stating that ETCs under their jurisdiction used all support received in the proceeding calendar year only to provide, maintain and upgrade the facilities for which the support was intended and will do the same in the coming calendar year. Certification letters should include the Study Area Code (SAC) – the unique six-digit number assigned to each carrier to identify it based on its service area – for every carrier being certified.
State officials can email the letter to USAC at HCCerts@usac.org or mail it to:
Universal Service Administrative Company
Attn: High Cost Program
700 12th Street, NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
State officials should contact HCCerts@usac.org with questions. Carriers that self certify should contact USAC Customer Support at HCQuestions@usac.org or (844) 357-0408 with questions.
Access To Carrier Data
Access to Form 481 Data
To inform the 54.314 certification process, state officials may access the most recent FCC Form 481 filings and attachments for carriers under their jurisdiction through the 54.314 system in E-File. FCC Form 481 collects financial and operations information used to validate carrier support. This includes information about a carrier’s holding company, operating companies, affiliates and branding designations (doing-business-as or DBA); ability to function in emergency situations; terrestrial backhaul; Tribal lands engagement; and comparability of voice and broadband service rates in rural and urban areas. Form 481 also includes a supply chain certification, which requires carriers to certify that no universal service support is being used to purchase, rent, lease, obtain or maintain any equipment or services produced or provided by any company designated by the FCC as posing a national security threat to the integrity of communications networks or the communications supply chain.
The most recent Form 481 filing – certified by carriers with USAC as of July 1, 2026 – is for Program Year 2027 because the information in the filing will be used for disbursements for 2027. The data filed is from 2025, which is the most recent full calendar year for which data is available.
The 54.314 system allows state officials to download a zip file containing a copy of the most recent certified Form 481 filing data and related attachments for carriers in their state by individual SAC. Carriers are no longer required to submit separate copies of the Form 481 filing to the FCC, state utility commissions or Tribal communities that they serve.
Access to Deployment Data
State officials may also access deployment data for broadband service supported by the Connect America Fund through the Connect America Fund (CAF) Map and the Connect America Fund (CAF) State Map, interactive online maps that show the impact of CAF support on broadband expansion in rural America. The CAF Map displays the geographic areas that are eligible for CAF support, as well as the specific fixed locations where participating carriers report offering mass-market, high speed Internet service funded by the program. The CAF State Map provides a big-picture, state-level view of CAF-supported deployment by aggregating data for all carriers participating in the program in each state.
The information in both maps comes out of USAC’s High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal, which collects and tracks broadband deployment data reported by carriers that receive funding. Carriers have until March 1 annually to submit and certify data in the HUBB for all locations deployed with CAF support during the previous calendar year. This includes date of deployment and fastest guaranteed upload and download speeds available for every location where they offer broadband supported by the program. Carriers must also report the address and latitude and longitude coordinates for every location served with CAF support, or report deployment using Location IDs from the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric). The Fabric, a single, standardized dataset of all locations in the U.S. where fixed broadband access is available or could be installed, serves as the foundation for FCC collection of fixed-broadband-availability data through the Broadband Data Collection and FCC mapping of fixed-broadband availability on the National Broadband Map. The FCC also relies on the Fabric to determine broadband deployment obligations for several newer CAF programs, and carriers in these programs report deployment data in the HUBB using Fabric Location IDs, which are the Location IDs from the Fabric that identify the locations where the carrier must offer service. (These carriers must provide a reason for any unserved locations on their required locations lists.)
The HUBB conducts automated, real-time validation checks of the deployment data submitted by carriers. The system validates, for instance, that a location’s latitude and longitude coordinates fall within an area eligible for funding, or that a reported Fabric Location ID is included on the list of locations where a carrier is required to deploy service. The HUBB also checks to be sure that the location is not a duplicate of one that has already been filed and that the date of deployment falls within the timeline of the fund in which the carrier participates. And it calculates carrier progress toward meeting a fund’s broadband build-out obligations, including interim and final deployment milestones. The HUBB will not accept locations that do not pass these automated validation checks and carriers will not receive credit for those deployments.
USAC also independently verifies deployment to a sample of reported locations reported each year to monitor carrier compliance with CAF build-out obligations.
The current CAF Map and CAF State Map are based on broadband deployment data certified in the HUBB as of March 6, 2026, to reflect deployment through Dec. 31, 2025. Note that the CAF Map only includes deployment data reported by carriers using addresses and latitude and longitude coordinates, while the CAF State Map also reflects deployment data reported by carriers using Fabric Location IDs. See the Broadband Funding Map for deployment obligations and broadband availability coverage (from the National Broadband Map) for carriers in funds not included in the CAF Map.
The dataset that serves as the foundation for both maps is available through the USAC Open Data platform.
Late Filings
An eligible telecommunications carrier will see a reduction of at least seven days of support for a late ETC certification. After the first seven days following the annual filing deadline, USAC will continue to reduce support on a day-by-day basis, plus an additional seven days, until the required certification is complete. A carrier would lose seven days of support for a certification that is four days late, for instance. And a carrier would lose 21 days of support for a certification that is 14 days late.
The FCC grants a one-time, four-day grace period for a late ETC certification. This means that a carrier will see no reduction in support for a late certification submitted within four days of the filing deadline if it is the first time that the certification is late.
This option to use the one-time grace period applies across a carrier’s holding company, affiliates and other operating companies. This means that if a carrier takes advantage of the four-day grace period, the grace period will not be available for any filing in subsequent years to its affiliates or other operating companies that serve different study areas but are owned by the same holding company.
See FCC 14-190, para. 129-138 and FCC 23-87, para. 146