[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 37 (Monday, February 25, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12750-12752]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-04167]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION


Information Collection(s) Being Reviewed by the Federal 
Communications Commission, Comments Requested

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burden 
and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
3501-3520), the Federal Communications Commission invites the general 
public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment 
on the following information collection(s). Comments are requested 
concerning: whether the proposed collection of information is necessary 
for the proper performance of the functions of the Commission, 
including whether the information shall have practical utility; the 
accuracy of the Commission's burden estimate; ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on the 
respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology; and ways to further reduce the 
information burden

[[Page 12751]]

for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees.
    The FCC may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information 
unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. No person 
shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection 
of information subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) that does 
not display a valid OMB control number.

DATES: Written Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) comments should be 
submitted on or before April 26, 2013. If you anticipate that you will 
be submitting PRA comments, but find it difficult to do so within the 
period of time allowed by this notice, you should advise the FCC 
contact listed below as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES: Submit your PRA comments to Judith B. Herman, Federal 
Communications Commission, via the Internet at [email protected]. 
To submit your PRA comments by email send them to: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Judith B. Herman, Office of Managing 
Director, (202) 418-0214.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    OMB Control Number: 3060-0986.
    Title: Competitive Carrier Line Count Report and Self-Certification 
as a Rural Carrier.
    Form Numbers: FCC Form 525 and new FCC Form 481.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities, not-for-profit 
institutions and state, local or tribal government.
    Number of Respondents: 8,690 respondents; 8,804 responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: .5 hours to 100 hours.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion, quarterly and annual reporting 
requirements, recordkeeping requirement and third party disclosure 
requirement.
    Obligation To Respond: Required to obtain or retain benefits. 
Statutory authority for this information collection is contained in 47 
U.S.C. sections 151, 154(i) and (j), 205, 221(c), 254, 303(r), 403, 
410, and 1302 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended.
    Total Annual Burden: 272,017 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: N/A.
    Privacy Impact Assessment: N/A.
    Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: We note that USAC must 
preserve the confidentiality of all data obtained from respondents and 
contributors to the universal service support program mechanism; must 
not use the data except for purposes of administering the universal 
service support program; and must not disclose data in company-specific 
form unless directed to do so by the Commission.
    Needs and Uses: The Commission will submit this information 
collection after this comment period to obtain the full, three year 
clearance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The 
Commission is requesting approval for a revision.
    There are no changes to the existing FCC Form 525. However, the 
Commission is requesting OMB approval for a new FCC Form 481, Annual 
Reporting Form for High-Cost Recipients and other new and modified 
information collection requirements.
    In November 2011, the Commission adopted an order reforming its 
high-cost universal service support mechanisms. Connect America Fund; A 
National Broadband Plan for Our Future; Establish Just and Reasonable 
Rates for Local Exchange Carriers; High-Cost Universal Service Support; 
Developing a Unified Intercarrier Compensation Regime; Federal-State 
Joint Board on Universal Service; Lifeline and Link-Up; Universal 
Service Reform--Mobility Fund, WC Docket Nos. 10-90, 07-135, 05-337, 
03-109; GN Docket No. 09-51; CC Docket Nos. 01-92, 96-45; WT Docket No. 
10-208, FCC 11-161, Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 26 
FCC Rcd 17663 (2011) (USF/ICC Transformation Order); see also Connect 
America Fund et al., WC Docket No. 10-90 et al., Third Order on 
Reconsideration, 27 FCC Rcd 5622 (2012); Connect America Fund et al., 
WC Docket No. 10-90 et al., Order, 27 FCC Rcd 605 (Wireline Comp. Bur. 
2012); Connect America Fund et al., WC Docket No. 10-90 et al., Fifth 
Order on Reconsideration, 27 FCC Rcd 14549 (2012).
    In its March 2012 supporting statement which was submitted and 
approved by OMB, the Commission implemented some of the information 
collections required by this order, but also noted that at a later date 
it planned to submit additional revisions or new collections for OMB 
review to address other reforms adopted in the order. This revision 
addresses those additional requirements.
    The Order provides: (1) Requires that any carrier receiving Connect 
America support to file a five-year service quality improvement plan by 
July 1, 2013, and to file annually thereafter a progress report on its 
plan; (2) Seeks to ensure parity between urban and rural areas for 
broadband and voice rates. To accomplish this, the order adopts a rule 
requiring carriers to report pricing information for both voice and 
broadband offerings; (3) Requires that a support recipient report the 
holding company, operating companies, affiliates, and any branding (a 
``dba'' or ``doing-business-as company'' or brand designation), for 
each such entity by Study Area Codes; (4) ETCs are required to submit a 
self-certification that the pricing of their voice services is no more 
than two standard deviations above the national average urban rate for 
voice services; (5) ETCs are required to submit information and data 
required by 47 CFR section 54.313(a)(1)-(7) separately broken out for 
both voice and broadband service; (6) recipients of high-cost support 
that serve Tribal lands must report on their Tribal engagement; (7) 
Recipients of frozen high-cost support must annually certify that 
increasing levels of support have been used to achieve the goal of 
universal availability of voice and broadband; (8) All price cap 
carriers that receive support pursuant to 47 CFR section 54.304, to 
offset reductions in access charges, must use such support to build and 
operate broadband-capable networks used to offer the provider's own 
retail service in areas substantially unserved by an unsubsidized 
competitor; (9) Within three years of the implementation of Phase II, 
funding recipients must certify that the company is providing broadband 
service to 85% of its supported locations at actual speeds of at least 
4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream, with latency suitable for real-
time applications, including Voice over Internet Protocol, and usage 
capacity that is reasonably comparable to comparable offerings in urban 
areas. Within five years of the implementation of Phase II, recipients 
must certify that the company is providing broadband service to 100% of 
its supported locations at actual speeds of at least 4 Mbps downstream 
and 1 Mbps upstream, and a percentage of supported locations, as 
specified by the Wireline Competition Bureau, at actual speeds of at 
least 6 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps upstream, with latency suitable 
for real-time applications, including Voice over Internet Protocol, and 
usage capacity that is reasonably comparable to comparable offerings in 
urban areas; (10) Requires a progress report on the company's five-year 
service quality plan; (11) Rate-of-return carriers are required to 
provide broadband service upon reasonable request; (12) Privately held 
rate-of-return carriers that receive high-cost support must submit a 
various forms of financial statements. Those companies that borrow 
funds from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) must submit a

[[Page 12752]]

copy of their RUS Operating Report for Telecommunications Borrowers; 
(13) Recognizes that satellite backhaul may limit the performance of 
broadband networks as compared to terrestrial backhaul, thus carriers 
compelled to rely exclusively on satellite backhaul in their study area 
must certify that no terrestrial backhaul options exist; (14) All 
incumbent local exchange carrier recipients of high-cost support must 
already report all of their rates for residential local service for all 
portions of their service area, as well as state fees (state subscriber 
line charges, state universal service fees and mandatory extended area 
service charges), to the extent the sum of those rates and fees are 
below the rate floor, and the number of lines for each rate specified.
    OMB Control Number: 3060-1030.
    Title: Service Rules for Advance Wireless Services (AWS) in the 1.7 
GHz and 2.1 GHz.
    Form Number: N/A.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities, not-for-profit 
institutions, Federal Government, and state, local or tribal 
government.
    Number of Respondents: 979 respondents; 1,625 responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: .25 hours to 5 hours.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion, annual and every 10 year 
reporting requirements, recordkeeping requirement and third party 
disclosure requirement.
    Obligation to Respond: Required to obtain or retain benefits. 
Statutory authority for this information collection is contained in 47 
U.S.C. sections 151, 152, 154(i), 201, 301, 302, 303(f), 303(g), 
303(r), 307, 308, 309, 310, 316, 319, 324, 332, and 333 of the 
Communications Act of 1934, as amended; and the Commercial Spectrum 
Enhancement Act (CSEA), Public Law 108-494, 118 Stat. 3896, 3992 
(2004).
    Total Annual Burden: 32,384 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: $581,800.
    Privacy Impact Assessment: N/A.
    Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: There is no need for 
confidentiality except as follows: some relocators that seek 
reimbursement through the FCC cost-sharing plan administered by the 
clearinghouses will be required to retain records for more than three 
years, as will the clearinghouses themselves.
    Needs and Uses: The Commission will submit this information 
collection after this comment period to obtain the full, three year 
clearance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The 
Commission is requesting OMB approval for a revision.
    The Commission in the revisions proposed in the AWS-4 NPRM, FCC 12-
32, which was submitted for OMB approval, proposed terrestrial service, 
technical, assignment and licensing rules for the 2000-2020 MHz and 
2180-2200 MHz spectrum bands. These proposed rules were designed to 
provide for flexible use of this spectrum, to encourage innovation and 
investment in mobile broadband, and to provide a stable regulatory 
environment in which broadband deployment could develop. The AWS-4 NPRM 
proposed terrestrial service rules for these spectrum bands that would 
generally follow the Commission's Part 27 rules, which apply to 
flexible use services (such as AWS-1), modified as necessary to account 
for issues unique to the 2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 MHz bands. The 
proposals in the AWS-4 NPRM included band-specific buildout, renewal, 
and discontinuance of service criteria. Given the proximity of these 
spectrum bands to spectrum bands previously identified as Advanced 
Wireless Services (AWS), the NPRM referred to these spectrum bands as 
``AWS-4'' or ``AWS-4 spectrum''. The AWS-4 NPRM proposed to expand 
spectrum available for AWS, which the Commission first adopted in 
theAWS-1 Report and Order.
    For this revision, subject to OMB approval, the Commission in the 
AWS-4 Report and Order, FCC 12-151, adopts flexible use rules for 40 
megahertz of spectrum in the 2 GHz band (2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 
MHz) that would increase the nation's supply of spectrum for mobile 
broadband. We adopt AWS-4 terrestrial service, technical, and licensing 
rules that generally follow the Commission's Part 27 flexible use 
rules, modified as necessary to account for issues unique to the AWS-4 
bands.
    Recordkeeping, reporting and third party disclosure requirements 
associated with the items listed in paragraph one of the supporting 
statement that is submitted to OMB for approval, will be used by 
incumbent licensees and new entrants to negotiate relocation agreements 
and to coordinate operations to avoid interference. The information 
will also be used by the clearinghouses to maintain a national 
database, determine reimbursement obligations of entrants pursuant to 
the Commission's rules, and notify such entrants of their reimbursement 
obligations. Additionally, the information will be used to facilitate 
dispute resolution and for FCC oversight of the clearinghouses and the 
cost-sharing plan.

Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene H. Dortch,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2013-04167 Filed 2-22-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P