[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 52 (Monday, March 17, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14248-14249]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-5305]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION


Notice of Public Information Collection Approved by the Office of 
Management and Budget

March 7, 2007.
SUMMARY: The Federal Communications Commission (Commission) has 
received Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for the 
following public information collection(s) pursuant to the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520). An agency may not conduct 
or sponsor a collection of information unless it displays a currently 
valid OMB control number, and no person is required to respond to a 
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB 
control number. Comments concerning the accuracy of the burden 
estimate(s) and any suggestions for reducing the burden should be 
directed to the person listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT 
section below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sue Gilgenbach, 
[email protected], (202) 418-0639.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    OMB Control Number: 3060-0484.
    OMB Approval Date: February 19, 2008.
    Expiration Date: February 28, 2011.
    Title: Part 4 of the Commission's Rules Concerning Disruptions to 
Communications.
    Form No.: Not applicable.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 4,819 responses; 2 hours per response; 
9,638 hours total per year.
    Obligation to Respond: Mandatory. 47 CFR Part 4.
    Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: Responses are presumed to be 
confidential. It is expected that the information filings will be 
shared only with the Department of Homeland Security, under appropriate 
confidential disclosure provisions. Other persons seeking disclosure 
must follow the procedures delineated in 47 CFR 0.457 and 0.459 of the 
Commission's rules.
    Needs and Uses: The information collection is necessary for the 
following reasons:
    (1) It enables the Commission to achieve its statutory objectives 
of ensuring the reliability and security of the nation's 
telecommunications

[[Page 14249]]

networks for the purposes of public safety and the national defense and 
security, including homeland security. If less frequent reporting were 
required, outages having a detrimental effect on the public and outages 
that could provide valuable network reliability information could 
escape Commission monitoring efforts.
    (2) In addition, some of the information collected could constitute 
``Critical Infrastructure Information,'' as defined in 6 U.S.C. 131, 
which would be shared with the Department of Homeland Security in 
furtherance of its missions to protect the United States from terrorist 
activity and to otherwise protect domestic security. Less frequent 
reporting could jeopardize the ability of the Commission and the 
Department of Homeland Security to meet their respective legal duties 
to the American people.
    This information collection consists of reports of outages of 
wireline communications, paging and wireless communications, cable 
circuit switched telephony and satellite communications. If the 
Commission did not receive the information in these reports for 
analysis and further investigation, the Commission would have 
considerable difficulty determining the state of network reliability 
and security. It would have to depend on delayed, incomplete and 
second-hand information and analysis as a basis for recommending any 
future Commission action that might be needed to enhance the 
reliability and security of the Nation's communications infrastructure. 
Without this information collection, the Commission would have 
difficulty determining the implementation and efficacy of its own and 
industry's present and future recommendations for enhancing reliability 
and security. Furthermore, the Commission would be less able to spot 
and act on reliability and security weaknesses as they begin to appear 
in the rapidly changing networks.
    Thus, the reporting requirement facilitates Commission monitoring 
of the reliability and security of communications service being 
provided and enables it to take swift remedial action, as required. The 
reporting requirement is also essential to the Commission's mission of 
ensuring that the public is protected from major disruptions to 
telephone services.
    This information collected has been used by the Commission staff to 
determine weaknesses in network reliability and to work with industry 
to remedy any such weaknesses.

Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene H. Dortch,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. E8-5305 Filed 3-14-08; 8:45 am]
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