What the allowable contract date is
“The Allowable Contract Date (ACD) is the earliest date on which an applicant can sign a contract for contracted services or enter into an arrangement for tariffed (T) or month-to-month (MTM) services with a service provider.”
The 28-day wait starts on the day the school certifies its Form 470, and that day counts as day one. USAC’s own example: certify on January 1, 2024, and the ACD is January 29, 2024. So on most forms the ACD is the certified date plus 28 days. Most, not all: see below.
Where the bid deadline actually is
USAC puts it in the school’s hands:
“Applicants may set a later bid deadline by including it in their FCC Form 470 narrative or their request for proposals (RFP).”
“Applicants should consider all bids received up until they begin consideration, unless they provided a specific bid submission deadline and noted that bids received after the deadline would be disqualified on the FCC Form 470 or RFP document.”
So there are three cases:
- The 470 or its RFP names a due date. That is your deadline. USAC says it must be at least 28 days after certification, or longer under state or local procurement rules.
- No due date is named. The school should consider bids until it starts evaluating, which can be on the ACD itself. Don’t plan on later.
- A mandatory site visit or pre-bid meeting. The real cutoff for you is that meeting, which can come before the ACD.
Why “certified + 28” is wrong on some forms
One reason USAC documents: the wait is recalculated when a school corrects its request.
“Beginning in Funding Year 2025, if applicants wish to make any substantive corrections, they can attach a new RFP document to their certified FCC Form 470, and the new 28-day waiting period will be recalculated automatically in EPC.”
Measured: in our sample list for ZIP 49058 (USAC data of November 7, 2026), 1 of the 40 bids still open when this page was built has an ACD that is not the certified date plus 28 days:
- Kent Isd (Grand Rapids, MI), Form 470 #270001171: certified September 29, 2026, ACD November 16, 2026, 48 days later. USAC record
Counting 28 days would put the signing date too early on that form. Read the ACD field on the form instead of counting. erateradar shows the ACD exactly as USAC lists it and never computes one.
How mandatory site visits close bids
Some Form 470s say in their own text that a site visit, walk-through or pre-bid meeting is mandatory or required. Once that date has passed, a firm that wasn’t there may be unable to bid, even though the ACD is later.
On November 7, 2026, 14 open Category 2 Form 470s nationally named a mandatory site visit or pre-bid meeting that had already passed, with no later one. We leave them off the list.
We read those dates from the Form 470’s own text (USAC Form 470 data). Many site visits are listed only in the RFP, which we don’t read, so check the RFP too.
A working timeline for a small shop
- Monday: the bid is on your list with its ACD and, where USAC has one, what the school reported last time.
- Same day: open the Form 470 from our link. Read the narrative and the RFP for a response deadline, site visits and required forms.
- Questions: only through the contact named on the 470, and only what you need to bid. USAC: “After the FCC Form 470 is posted, you should limit outreach to the applicant to requests for information needed to submit responsive bids.” (source)
- Submit before the stated deadline. If none is stated, submit before the ACD: the school may start evaluating that day.
- The school signs on or after the ACD, then files its Form 471.
How erateradar shows dates
- The ACD exactly as USAC lists it, worded as “the earliest date it can sign a contract”, never as a deadline.
- Bids closed by a passed mandatory site visit named in the 470 are left out.
- Built from USAC Form 470 data last reloaded November 7, 2026. USAC reloads these records daily, so a 470 certified today shows up after the next load.