Announcements Archive

June 16, 2026

FCC Form 507 Line Count Report Due by July 1

Carriers receiving Alternative Connect America Model (Original ACAM, Revised ACAM, ACAM II or Enhanced ACAM) or Alaska Plan support must submit the annual Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Form 507 line count report to USAC by July 1, 2026, through USAC’s new online legacy data collection portal.

FCC Form 507 collects carrier line count data by study area in each of the following categories:

• Residential and single-line business access lines in service
• Multi-line business access lines in service
• Consumer broadband-only lines in service
• Total number of lines in service

Carriers must submit the FCC Form 507 through USAC’s new online legacy data collection portal, which can be accessed through USAC’s E-file system. Please see USAC’s Multifactor Authentication Troubleshooting Steps for help logging into E-File.

Read the full announcement here.

June 16, 2026

Q2 Performance Measures Testing Must Be Complete by June 30

USAC reminds carriers subject to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) performance measures testing framework that they must complete a week of second quarter network speed and latency testing at a random sample of broadband subscriber locations supported by the Connect America Fund (CAF) and reported in the  High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal by Tues., June 30, 2026, and must submit and certify the results of that testing through the USAC Performance Measures Module (PMM) no later than Wed., July 15, 2026.

Failure to complete a full week of speed and latency testing at the selected subscriber locations by the end of the second quarter, on June 30, 2026, or to submit and certify all test results for the full sample of selected subscriber locations for each Study Area Code (SAC) and obligated speed tier combination – or attest that a carrier cannot find active subscribers to test for a particular SAC and speed tier combination – by July 15, 2026, may impact future CAF support payments. (See FCC DA 26-277 and FCC DA 25-289)

This requirementapplies to carriers in the following funds (as well as ACS):

• Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Original ACAM)
• Revised Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Revised ACAM)
• Rural Broadband Experiments (RBE)
• Alaska Plan
• Alternative Connect America Cost Model II (ACAM II)
• Connect America Fund Broadband Loop Support (CAF BLS)
• Connect America Fund Phase II Auction (CAF II Auction)

Carriers that do not conduct all required network performance measures testing during the second quarter because they do not have locations in the HUBB or cannot find active subscribers to test for a particular SAC and speed tier combination must attest to this (and provide an explanation) in the PMM by the July 15, 2026, deadline and may be subject to verification review that subscribers are not available. 

Carriers that do not conduct all required network performance measures testing during the second quarter for any other reason – including carriers that have obtained a subscriber location sample for a particular SAC and speed tier combination but do not have time to set up testing – must also attest to this (and provide an explanation) in the PMM by the July 15, 2026, deadline and may see an impact on compliance calculations. 

Carriers should no longer separately notify the FCC and USAC by email if they do not conduct all required network testing for any reason, including a lack of active subscribers to test. USAC and the FCC no longer accept no-subscriber or no-testing attestations by email as a form of quarterly certification. (See FCC DA 26-277.)

To help carriers identify any missing samples of subscriber locations for testing, missing test data or missing data certifications (or no-subscriber or no-testing attestations), the PMM features a new home page dashboard that provides a consolidated view of a carrier’s status in generating samples, uploading test data and certifying test data (or attesting to no subscribers or no testing) for each required SAC and speed tier combination every quarter. The dashboard also allows carriers to filter this information by quarter, fund, SAC and state to track their progress.

Read the full announcement here.

June 16, 2026

Q2 Performance Measures Pre-Testing Must Be Complete by June 30

USAC reminds carriers participating in the Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Enhanced ACAM) program that they must complete a week of second quarter network speed and latency pre-testing at a random sample of broadband subscriber locations supported by the Connect America Fund (CAF) and reported in the  High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal by Tues., June 30, 2026, and must submit and certify the results of that pre-testing through the USAC Performance Measures Module (PMM) no later than Wed., July 15, 2026, in order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) performance measures testing framework.

Failure to complete a full week of speed and latency pre-testing at the selected subscriber locations by the end of the second quarter, on June 30, 2026, or to submit and certify all pre-test data for the full sample of selected subscriber locations for each Study Area Code (SAC) and obligated speed tier combination – or attest that a carrier cannot find active subscribers to test for a particular SAC and speed tier combination – by July 15, 2026, may lead to withholding of support. (See FCC DA 26-277 and FCC DA 25-289)

Enhanced ACAM carriers that do not conduct all required network performance measures testing during the second quarter because they cannot find active subscribers to test for a particular SAC and speed tier combination must attest to this (and provide an explanation) in the PMM by the July 15, 2026, deadline and may be subject to verification review that subscribers are not available. (Enhanced ACAM carriers that do not have CAF-supported deployment data reported yet in the HUBB do not have to begin pre-testing yet, but should plan to do so within one quarter after they do.)

Enhanced ACAM carriers that do not conduct all required network performance measures pre-testing during the first quarter for any other reason – including carriers that have obtained a subscriber location sample for a particular SAC and speed tier combination but do not have time to set up testing – must also attest to this (and provide an explanation) in the PMM by the July 15, 2026, deadline and may face support withholding.

To help carriers identify any missing samples, missing test data or missing data certifications (or no-subscriber or no-testing attestations), the PMM features a new home page dashboard that provides a consolidated view of a carrier’s status in generating subscriber location samples for testing, uploading test data and certifying test data (or attesting to no subscribers or no testing) for each required SAC and speed tier combination every quarter. The dashboard also allows carriers to filter this information by quarter, fund, SAC and state to track their progress.

Read the full announcement here.

June 9, 2026

Carriers Must Obtain New Samples to Resume Network Testing in Q3

USAC reminds carriers participating in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and the Bringing Puerto Rico Together (Uniendo a Puerto Rico) Fund and the Connect USVI Fund (PR/USVI Funds) programs that they must obtain new random samples of broadband subscriber locations supported by the Connect America Fund (CAF) and reported in the High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal using location IDs from the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (Fabric) to resume quarterly network speed and latency testing in the second half of 2026.

The USAC Performance Measures Module (PMM), the USAC system that supports the mandatory Federal Communications Commission (FCC) network testing framework, is ready to generate new samples for RDOF and PR/USVI Funds carriers. USAC strongly encourages carriers that have not already done so to begin this process now – starting by updating their broadband deployment data in the HUBB to be as complete and accurate as possible and then uploading their subscriber location data into the PMM and generating new samples (see steps below) – so that they have enough time to complete a full week of testing at the selected locations before the end of the third quarter of the year.

Read the full announcement here.

June 1, 2026

FCC Form 481 Due by July 1

USAC reminds all eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) participating in the High Cost and/or Lifeline programs that they must submit and certify Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Form 481 for program year 2027 no later than Wed., July 1, 2026. FCC Form 481, which is accessible through the USAC E-File/Okta One Portal, collects financial and operations information used to validate carrier support, fulfilling the annual 54.313 reporting requirement for High Cost funding recipients.

State utility commissions also rely on Form 481 data to perform the annual certification of ETCs under their jurisdiction to be able to participate in the High Cost program, as mandated under 47 CFR Section 54.314. This federal regulation requires state utility commissions to certify by Oct. 1 annually 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.

Read the full announcement here.