================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 11 ISSN 1069-7799 January 30, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (67 lines) UNIVERSAL SERVICE PROGRAM BEGINS ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS; LIST OF SERVICES ELIGIBLE FOR DISCOUNTS POSTED _________________________________________________________________ UNIVERSAL SERVICE PROGRAM BEGINS ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS; LIST OF SERVICES ELIGIBLE FOR DISCOUNTS POSTED As promised earlier this week, the Schools and Libraries Corporation (SLC) website opened this morning. The website address is http://www.slcfund.org and will operate daily from 5 a.m. to midnight EST. The opening of the SLC website triggers the beginning of the initial 75-day filing window, during which all applications (FCC Forms 470 and 471) will be treated as if filed simultaneously. At this site, completed applications will be posted for competitive bidding by service providers who want to do business with eligible schools and libraries. SLC's online application website includes materials for the online application, information about the program, and helpful hints on how to fill out an application online. It was designed to handle up to 500 simultaneous users. In the first 6 hours of operation today, 551 applications had been initiated on the website. For those who do not wish to file electronically, print copies of the application forms are available from the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) website at http://www.neca.org/funds/formsl.htm, or by calling the SLC Customer Service Bureau at 1-888-203-8100 or by fax at 1-888-276-8736. Additional information on the application process and the program is available from the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy website at http://www.ala.org/oitp/getdisc.html. Information is also available from EdLiNC's E-rate Hotline at http://www.eratehotline.org or 1-800-733-6860. In related news, the Schools and Libraries Corporation has posted a list of services eligible for the universal service discounts. That list is available from http://www.neca.org/funds/faslc.htm. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/ washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Carol C. Henderson All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================