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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 8 / Wednesday, January 13, 2021 / Rules and Regulations participate in the Reimbursement Program for the reimbursement of costs reasonably incurred for the removal, replacement, and disposal of covered communications equipment and services. The Wireline Competition Bureau may implement additional filing windows as necessary and shall provide notice before opening any additional filing window, and include in that notice the amount of funding available.
The Wireline Competition Bureau shall treat all eligible providers filing an application within any filing window as if their applications were simultaneously received. Funding requests submitted outside of a filing window will not be accepted.
c Reserved d Application review process. The Wireline Competition Bureau will review applications to determine whether the application is complete, whether the applicant is eligible for the
Reimbursement Program, and to assess the reasonableness of the cost estimates provided by the applicant. The Wireline Competition Bureau shall approve or deny applications to receive a funding allocation from the Reimbursement Program within 90 days after the close of the applicable filing window. The Wireline Competition Bureau may extend the deadline for granting or denying applications for up to an additional 45 days if it determines that an excessive number of applications have been filed during the window and additional time is needed to review the applications.
1 Reserved 2 Denial of an application shall not preclude the applicant from submitting a new application for reimbursement in a subsequent filing window.
e Funding allocation. Once an application is approved, the Wireline Competition Bureau will allocate
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funding on the applicants behalf to the United States Treasury for draw down by the Reimbursement Program recipient as expenses are incurred pursuant to the funding disbursement process provided for in paragraph g of this section.
f Prioritization of support. The Wireline Competition Bureau shall issue funding allocations in accordance with this section after the close of a filing window. After a filing window closes, the Wireline Competition Bureau shall calculate the total demand for Reimbursement Program support submitted by all eligible providers during the filing window period. If the total demand received during the filing window exceeds the total funds available, then the Wireline Competition Bureau shall allocate the available funds consistent with the following priority schedule:

TABLE 1 TO PARAGRAPH fPRIORITIZATION SCHEDULE
Priority 1: Advanced communication service providers with 2 million or fewer customers that are Eligible Telecommunication Carriers subject to section 54.11 new removal and replacement requirement.
Priority 2: Non-ETC providers of advanced communications service with 2 million or fewer customers that participated in the Supply Chain Security Information Collection, OMB Control No. 30601270.
Priority 3: Other non-Eligible Telecommunication Carriers that are providers of advanced communication service with 2 million or fewer customers.

1 Application of prioritization schedule. The Wireline Competition Bureau shall issue full funding allocations for all eligible providers in the Priority 1 prioritization category before issuing funding allocations in any subsequent prioritization categories.
The Wireline Competition Bureau shall continue to review all funding requests and issue funding allocations by prioritization category until there are no available funds remaining. If there is insufficient funding to fully fund all requests in a particular prioritization category, then the Wireline Competition Bureau will pro-rate the available funding among all eligible providers in that prioritization category. Requests for funds in subsequent prioritization categories will be denied for lack of available funding.
2 Pro-rata reductions. When pro-rata reductions are required per paragraph f1 of this section, the Wireline Competition Bureau shall:
i Divide the total remaining funds available by the demand within the
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specific prioritization category to produce a pro-rata factor;
ii Multiply the pro-rata factor by the total dollar amount requested by each recipient in the prioritization category;
and iii Allocate funds to each recipient consistent with this calculation.
g Reserved h Removal, replacement, and disposal term. Reimbursement Program recipients must complete the permanent removal, replacement, and disposal of covered communications equipment or service within one year of receiving the initial draw down disbursement from their funding allocation.
1 General extension. The Commission may extend by a period of six months the removal, replacement, and disposal term to all Reimbursement Program recipients if the Commission:
i Finds that the supply of replacement communications equipment or services needed by the recipients to achieve the purposes of the Reimbursement Program is inadequate to meet the needs of the recipients; and
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Priority 1a: Costs reasonably incurred for transitioning core networks.
Priority 1b: Costs reasonably incurred for noncore network transition.
Priority 2a: Costs reasonably incurred for transitioning core networks.
Priority 2b: Costs reasonably incurred for noncore network transition.
Priority 3a: Costs reasonably incurred for transitioning core networks.
Priority 3b: Costs reasonably incurred for noncore network transition.

ii Provides notice and detailed justification for granting the extension to:
A The Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives; and B The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate.
2 Individual extensions. Prior to the expiration of the removal, replacement and disposal term, a Reimbursement Program recipient may petition the Wireline Competition Bureau for an extension of the term. The Wireline Competition Bureau may grant an extension for up to six months after finding, that due to no fault of such recipient, such recipient is unable to complete the permanent removal, replacement, and disposal by the end of the term. The Wireline Competition Bureau may grant more than one extension request to a recipient if circumstances warrant.
i Limitations on funding use. A
Reimbursement Program recipient may not:

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