[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 153 (Wednesday, August 8, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39090-39091]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-16895]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION


Information Collection Approved by the Office of the Management 
and Budget (OMB)

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Communications Commission has received Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approval for a revised information 
collection pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995. 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 estimates 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: Nicole Ongele, Office of the Managing 
Director, at (202) 418-2991, or via email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    OMB Control Number: 3060-0986.
    OMB Approval Date: July 2, 2018.
    OMB Expiration Date: July 31, 2021.
    Title: High-Cost Universal Service Support.
    Form Numbers: FCC Form 481 and FCC Form 525.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit, not-for-profit 
institutions and state, local or tribal government.
    Number of Respondents and Responses: 1,877 respondents; 14,335 
responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: 0.5-15 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. 151-154, 155, 201-206, 214, 218-220, 251, 252, 254, 256, 303(r), 
332, 403, 405, 410, and 1302.
    Total Annual Burden: 63,486 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: No cost.
    Privacy Act Impact Assessment: No impact(s).
    Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: The Commission notes that 
USAC must preserve the confidentiality of all data obtained from 
respondents; must not use the data except for purposes of administering 
the universal service programs; and must not disclose data in company-
specific form unless directed to do so by the Commission. Privately-
held rate-of-return carriers may file the financial information they 
disclose in FCC Form 481 pursuant to a protective order.
    Needs and Uses: The Commission received OMB approval for this 
revised information collection. On July 7, 2017, the Commission 
released Connect America Fund; ETC Annual Reports and Certifications, 
WC Docket Nos. 10-90 and 14-58, Order, FCC 17-87 (ETC Reporting 
Streamlining Order), which streamlined the annual reporting 
requirements for eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) that 
receive high-cost universal service support by eliminating several 
rules that are either duplicative of other reporting requirements or 
are simply no longer necessary. In doing this, the Commission reduced 
ETCs' regulatory burdens while strengthening the tools for program 
oversight in furtherance of our goal of protecting the high cost 
universal support program against waste, fraud, and abuse. 
Specifically, the Commission eliminated its annual high-cost reporting 
rules regarding network outage information, unfulfilled service 
requests, the number of complaints received by an ETC per 1,000 
subscribers for both voice and broadband services, pricing for voice 
and broadband services, service quality certification, and duplicate 
filing of the FCC Form 481 without compromising its ability to monitor 
whether ETCs are using high-cost universal service support for its 
intended purpose, adopted in the ETC Reporting Streamlining Order.
    This revised information collection addresses the removal of those 
duplicative or otherwise unnecessary

[[Page 39091]]

reporting requirements and the reorganization of remaining 
requirements, which were not substantively changed.

Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene H. Dortch,
Secretary, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-16895 Filed 8-7-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6712-01-P