$39.7M
committed to the region, FY2016–2026 (funded, de-duplicated)
$35.6M
actually disbursed — a 90% realization rate
~20
USAC datasets, reconciled to one shared total
135,863
full-time students across the 46 entities
How the data is organized
The E-Rate lifecycle — and where each dataset sits.
Every dataset is a snapshot of one stage in a school's E-Rate application. Read left to right: a district posts what it needs, requests funding, USAC commits, and money is paid out.
Stage 1 · Demand
Form 470
The RFP. Districts post what services they seek and open a 28-day bidding window.
Stage 2 · Request
Form 471
The funding request: line items, products, discount rates, and recipient schools.
Stage 3 · Commitment
USAC Decision
USAC funds, denies, or cancels each request. This is the authoritative money.
Stage 4 · Payment
Forms 472 / 474
Invoices and disbursements — money that actually leaves the fund.
The catalog
The datasets, stage by stage.
Stage 1
Form 470 — Demand & Competitive Bidding
What districts are seeking · no dollarsOpen Competitive Bidding: Basic Information
jp7a-89ndHas BEN
GrainOne row per Form 470 version. Dedupe on application_number.
What it tells usThe master list of every RFP the region has posted — who, funding year, site count, and a prose scope for Category 1.
Allegheny finding343 distinct RFPs, FY2017–2026. 14 entities already posted for the FY2026 cycle — demand is live.
Open dataset ↗
Open Competitive Bidding: Services Requested
39tn-hjzvLine-grain
GrainOne row per service line requested. Join to jp7a-89nd for BEN.
What it tells usExactly what the region puts out to bid — the C1 vs C2 mix and named manufacturers.
Allegheny finding2,573 request lines: 79% Category 2 (internal equipment), 21% Category 1. Cisco most-named, but 'No Preference' dominates.
Open dataset ↗
Open Competitive Bidding: Consortium Entity Info
363f-22uhMember roster
GrainOne row per member on a consortium 470. Keys on consortium_entity_number.
What it tells usWhich shared/statewide bids each district joins as a member.
Allegheny findingAIU files its consortium 470s as 'School District,' so its member rosters are invisible here. Districts do appear under PEPPM, IU-13, and (historically) PAIUNET.
Open dataset ↗
Open Competitive Bidding: Consultants
g55z-erudPerson-grain
GrainOne row per consultant named on a 470. Join via application_number.
What it tells usWhether districts hire outside E-Rate consultants, and who leads the market.
Allegheny finding76% of the region's RFPs (34 of 46 entities) use a consultant — led by Epic Communications (68) and Advanedge (57). 12 entities file in-house.
Open dataset ↗
Stage 2
Form 471 — The Funding Request
Line items, discounts, connectivity, recipientsRequest for Discount: Basic Information
9s6i-myenNo BENApp metadata
GrainOne row per application × version. Keys on application_number (no BEN).
What it tells usThe application 'cover sheet' — discount %, student/NSLP counts, timeliness, and a link to the certified form PDF.
Allegheny findingBest source for discount-rate and enrollment context; its dollar fields are as-requested, never USAC commitments.
Open dataset ↗
Request for Discount: FRN Line Items
hbj5-2bpjVersion dup ⚠Pre-discount
GrainOne row per line item × version. Filter form_version='Current'.
What it tells usThe itemized bill of materials — exact products, brands, and pre-discount cost.
Allegheny findingTop gear: switches, cabling, access points from Extreme, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Meraki. Largest C1 function is Fiber.
Open dataset ↗
Request for Discount: Discount Calculations
upfy-khtrPer-school
GrainOne row per child school. Parent discount repeats per row.
What it tells usHow each district's discount is derived — the NSLP % per school that sets the rate.
Allegheny finding19 districts at 90% C1 (C2 capped at 85%); 7 affluent districts at 40%. Pittsburgh is 90% via district-wide CEP (100% NSLP).
Open dataset ↗
Request for Discount: Connectivity Information
ym44-rnhqFrozen FY2018
GrainOne row per parent×child connection survey. Keys on epc_organization_id.
What it tells usSelf-reported bandwidth, connection type, and connectivity barriers — a historical baseline only.
Allegheny findingFY2018 speeds ranged from Clairton at 75 Mbps to Hampton at 10 Gbps. No data published after FY2018.
Open dataset ↗
Request for Discount: Recipients Of Service
tuem-agyqRecipient-grain ⚠No dollars
GrainOne row per line item × recipient school. The mapping table other datasets fan out over.
What it tells usExactly which schools receive service under each FRN — and why the cost datasets multiply.
Allegheny findingA single Pittsburgh line item maps to 135 recipient schools. This is the root cause of the overcount trap.
Open dataset ↗
Stage 3
Commitment — USAC's Decision
The authoritative moneyRecipient Details And Commitments
avi8-svp9Recipient-grain ⚠Has BEN
GrainOne row per line item × recipient. Dedupe by (FRN, line item).
What it tells usWhich specific schools received which equipment — the only per-building granularity.
Allegheny findingNaive sum = $768M (19× over); deduped = $39.7M, reconciling to qdmp-ygft to the penny. Pittsburgh overcounts 61×.
Open dataset ↗
E-Rate Search Commitments Tool
jj4v-cm5xNot data
GrainNone — a Socrata 'story' page, not a table.
What it tells usA navigational landing page pointing to the commitment datasets. No rows to query.
Allegheny findingEasy to mistake for a data source because of its name. Treat as a link, not data.
Open dataset ↗
Stage 4
Disbursement — Money Paid Out
FCC Forms 472 (BEAR) & 474 (SPI)Invoice Disbursements Data Lookup Tool
t3vg-gfseUI wrapper
GrainChart view of jpiu-tj8h — no queryable columns.
What it tells usThe human-facing lookup tool rendered on the disbursements table.
Allegheny findingUse jpiu-tj8h for any analysis; this is a presentation layer only.
Open dataset ↗
Reference
Cross-Stage Reference Tables
Providers · Category 2 budgets · EntitiesService Provider Information
xcy2-bdidSPIN directory
GrainOne row per SPIN. A provider dimension table — no dollars.
What it tells usTurns a SPIN on a funding request into a real company, location, and regulatory profile.
Allegheny findingThe region's fiber is a Crown Castle + DQE duopoly — 86% of all Category 1 dollars between two PA providers.
Open dataset ↗
Service Provider Download Tool
twgi-emssUI wrapper
GrainNon-tabular export front-end for xcy2-bdid.
What it tells usA human-facing export of the same provider profiles. No independent data.
Allegheny findingDuplicate presentation of xcy2-bdid — query that table instead.
Open dataset ↗
C2 Budget Tool (FY2021+)
8z69-hkn7UI wrapper
GrainChart view of 6brt-5pbv.
What it tells usThe interactive budget tool applicants use to check headroom.
Allegheny findingSame data as 6brt-5pbv, presented for interactive lookup.
Open dataset ↗
Supplemental Entity Information
7i5i-83qfEntity = BEN
GrainOne row per entity per snapshot (~4 copies). Dedupe by entity_number.
What it tells usThe EPC entity profile — name, type, discount rate, parent linkage.
Allegheny findingConfirms entity_number == BEN for all 46. But urban/rural and student counts are almost entirely null here — source them elsewhere.
Open dataset ↗
E-Rate Entity Search Tool
59r2-zbdqUI wrapper
GrainSearch front-end over 7i5i-83qf.
What it tells usThe public 'look up an entity' tool.
Allegheny findingSame data as 7i5i-83qf; use that table for queries.
Open dataset ↗
The synthesis
What the data tells us about Allegheny County.
Read across all ~20 sources, a clear picture of the region's connectivity funding emerges.
$39.7M
Committed over 11 years
Federal E-Rate committed to the region's 46 entities, FY2016–2026 — split almost evenly between Category 1 connectivity ($18.0M) and Category 2 internal networks ($20.1M).
qdmp-ygft · avi8-svp990%
Of commitments actually paid
$35.6M of $39.7M has been disbursed. Two-thirds flows via provider-billed (SPI) invoices — vendors, not districts, front most of the cash.
jpiu-tj8h86%
Of C1 dollars, two providers
Crown Castle Fiber and DQE Communications supply 86% of the region's Category 1 broadband — a fiber duopoly. Only 6 of 43 C1 districts use neither.
avi8-svp9 · xcy2-bdid$21.8M
Category 2 budget unclaimed
Headroom districts are entitled to but haven't drawn for FY2026–2030. In the prior cycle, $1.14M was fully forfeited by 4 districts that drew $0.
6brt-5pbv19
Districts at the 90% discount
Discounts are poverty-driven (NSLP). 19 of 46 entities qualify at the maximum rate — Pittsburgh among them, via district-wide Community Eligibility.
upfy-khtr · 7i5i-83qf76%
Of RFPs use a consultant
The region's E-Rate process is professionalized — 34 of 46 entities hire outside consultants, led by Epic Communications and Advanedge.
g55z-erud$4.1M
Committed but undrawn
Money committed yet not invoiced, concentrated in a handful of districts spending only 68–79% of their commitments (West Jefferson Hills, McKeesport, West Allegheny…).
jpiu-tj8h1 of 46
Districts is rural
Only West Allegheny is coded Rural; the region is overwhelmingly Urban — precisely the communities a 'rural-only' E-Rate rule would exclude.
upfy-khtr · avi8-svp9 · ros_urban_ruralCaveats to carry forward
Reading the fine print.
- Five of the ~20 "datasets" are not data. jj4v-cm5x, twgi-emss, t3vg-gfse, 8z69-hkn7, and 59r2-zbdq are Socrata "story"/visualization wrappers over a real table — useful as human-facing UIs, but they return no queryable rows. Always query the backing table.
- Bandwidth data is frozen at FY2018. The connectivity questionnaire (ym44-rnhq) was retired after FY2018 — treat those speeds (75 Mbps–10 Gbps) as a historical baseline, not current.
- Urban/rural and student counts are unreliable in the entity table. 7i5i-83qf leaves both fields almost entirely null; the region's "85% Urban" reads from recipient-level ros_urban_rural_status, and student counts come from the C2 Budget tool (6brt-5pbv, 46/46 populated).
- Not every entity keys on BEN. Form 470 detail and consultant tables key on application_number; 9s6i-myen has no BEN at all; provider tables key on spin. The join spine is application → FRN → line item.
- FY2026 is still open. $1.65M committed so far with 74 funding requests still pending decision — recent-year totals will rise.
