Study Area Boundary Recertifications Due May 29

ILECs are required to recertify their study area boundaries every other year and 2019 is a recertification year. This year’s deadline is May 29. Additionally, if you needed to make changes to your study area boundary data, the deadline was March 15. However, JSI can work with you to get the data submitted to the FCC if you had changes and were unaware of the annual March 15 cutoff for submitting those changes. Please review your study area boundary data on this map, which was last updated in February 2019.

Before 2017, the FCC used the same site for submitting study area boundaries and recertifying the boundaries. Starting in the 2017 recertification period, the FCC separated the recertification site from the submission site. If there have not been changes to your study area boundary, all you need to do is log in to the FCC Licensing and Databases site with your “FCC User” credentials and go to the study area boundary recertification link. JSI recommends following along with this Study Area Boundary Recertification Tip Sheet step-by-step for the best results. As a best practice, JSI also recommends taking a screenshot when you get to the final step, checking the “attest” box, because the site does not generate a confirmation email or page. Additional resources on the FCC’s study area boundary data collection and maintenance can be found at this site.

Some state commissions, including Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, Mississippi, and Nebraska, were initially responsible for submitting each ILEC’s study area boundary shapefile in 2013. Over the years, some of the state commissions have passed the responsibility of recertification to the individual ILECs. Each of these state commissions has since developed a different process for handling the submission of revised boundaries and the recertification process, so it is best to be aware of the process if you are in one of these states. JSI has a list of state commission information, and if you are unsure if your state commission recertified your boundaries, please contact us.

Finally, ILECs who bought or sold study areas should check the FCC map to verify that the company name and holding company name are correctly listed. If the names are incorrect, it may require resubmitting a shapefile to the FCC.

For any questions about the study area boundary submission or recertification process, please contact Cassandra Heyne in the Maryland office at 301-459-7590.