[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 80 (Wednesday, April 28, 2021)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 22360-22361]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-08651]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

47 CFR Parts 1 and 4

[GN Docket 15-206, FCC 16-81, FCC 19-138; FRS 21073]


Improving Outage Reporting for Submarine Cables and Enhanced 
Submarine Cable Outage Data

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Final rule and announcement of compliance date.

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SUMMARY: In this document, the Commission announces that the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) has approved a new information collection 
associated with rules governing submarine cable outage reporting 
requirements in the 2016 Report and Order, FCC 16-81, as modified in 
the 2019 Order on Reconsideration, FCC 19-138, in GN Docket No. 15-206. 
The Commission also announces that compliance with the rules will be 
required six months after the date of this notice. This notice is 
consistent with the 2016 Report and Order and the 2019 Order on 
Reconsideration, which state that the Commission will publish a 
document in the Federal Register announcing a compliance date for the 
rule section mandating submarine cable outage reporting requirements.

DATES: 
    Effective date: This rule is effective October 28, 2021.
    Compliance date: Compliance with the amendments to 47 CFR 4.1 and 
4.15, published at 81 FR 52354 on August 8, 2016, and 85 FR 15733 on 
March 19, 2020, respectively, is required as of October 28, 2021.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Scott Cinnamon at (202) 418-2319 or 
[email protected] or Charlene C. Goldfield at (202) 418-1372 or 
[email protected], Attorney-Advisors of the Public Safety and 
Homeland Security Bureau, Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability 
Division.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This document announces that OMB approved 
the information collection requirement in Sec.  4.15 on March 25, 2021.
    The Commission publishes this document to announce the compliance 
date of the rule. If you have any comments on the burden estimates 
listed below, or how the Commission can improve the collections and 
reduce any burdens caused thereby, please contact Nicole Ongele, 
Federal Communications Commission, Room 3.310, 45 L Street NE, 
Washington, DC 20554, regarding OMB Control Number 3060-1283. Please 
include the OMB Control Number in your correspondence. The Commission 
will also accept your comments via email at [email protected].
    To request materials in accessible formats for people with 
disabilities (Braille, large print, electronic files, audio format), 
send an email to [email protected] or call the Consumer and Governmental 
Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530 (voice), (202) 418-0432 (TTY).

Synopsis

    As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
3507), the FCC is notifying the public that it received final OMB 
approval on March 25, 2021, for the information collection requirements 
contained in Sec.  4.15 of its rules. Under 5 CFR part 1320, an agency 
may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless it 
displays a current, 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 that does not 
display a current, valid OMB Control Number.
    The foregoing notice is required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, Public Law 104-13, October 1, 1995, and 44 U.S.C. 3507.
    The total annual reporting burdens and costs for the respondents 
are as follows:
    OMB Control Number: 3060-1283.
    OMB Approval Date: March 25, 2021.
    OMB Expiration Date: March 31, 2024.
    Title: Improving Outage Reporting for Submarine Cables and Enhanced 
Submarine Cable Outage Data.
    Form Number: N/A.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
    Number of Respondents and Responses: 74 respondents; 336 responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: 6 hours.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion reporting requirement.
    Obligation to Respond: Mandatory. Statutory authority for these 
collections is contained in 47 U.S.C. 34-39, 151, 154, 155, 157, 201, 
251, 254, 301, 303(b), 303(g), 303(r), 307, 309(a), 309(j), 316, 332, 
403, 615a-1, 615c, 1302(a), and 1302(b); 5 U.S.C. 301, and Executive 
Order no. 10530.
    Total Annual Burden: 2,016 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: No Cost.
    Privacy Impact Assessment: No impact(s).
    Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: These outage reports filed 
with the Commission pursuant to part 4 are presumed confidential. The 
information in these filings may be shared with the Department of 
Homeland Security only under appropriate confidential disclosure 
protections. Other persons seeking disclosure must follow the 
procedures delineated in 47 CFR 0.457 and 0.459 of the Commission's 
rules for requests for and disclosure of information. The Commission 
recently adopted rule revisions, scheduled to take effect on September 
30, 2022, that would expand this sharing to participating agencies of 
the 50 states, the District of Columbia, tribal nations, territories, 
and other agencies of federal government that have official duties that 
make them directly responsible for emergency management and first 
responder support functions. See In the Matter of Amendments to Part 4 
of the Commission's Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, 
Second Report and Order, FCC 21-34 (2021).
    Needs and Uses: This information collection pertains to a Report 
and Order adopted by the Commission in 2016 and modified in part by an 
Order on Reconsideration adopted by the Commission in 2019. The Report 
and Order adopted final rules requiring submarine cable licensees to 
report service outages through the network outage reporting system 
(NORS). The Order on Reconsideration modified the Report and Order by 
reexamining and amending certain aspects of the required reporting to 
better conform the requirements to how the Commission expects to use 
the outage information. Specifically, these licensees will need to 
report specific unplanned outages greater than 30 minutes on a portion 
of the cable system between submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) or 
greater than four hours when it affects a fiber pair.
    Submarine cables are the conduit for the vast majority of voice, 
data, and internet connectivity between the mainland United States and 
Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, 
Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as the connectivity 
between the United States and the rest of the world.

[[Page 22361]]

Accordingly, the operation and maintenance of the undersea cables 
licensed in the United States are essential to the nation's economic 
stability, national security and other vital public interests. As with 
other information collection using NORS (under OMB Control No. 3060-
0484), this newly approved collection will facilitate FCC monitoring, 
analysis, and investigation of the reliability and security of 
submarine cable networks, and to identify and take action on potential 
threats to our Nation's telecommunications infrastructure.

Lists of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 4

    Submarine Cable Outage.

Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene Dortch,
Secretary.

Final Rules

    For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Federal 
Communications Commission amends 47 CFR part 4 as follows.

PART 4--DISRUPTIONS TO COMMUNICATIONS

0
1. The authority citation for part 4 continues to read as follows:

    Authority:  47 U.S.C. 34-39, 151, 154, 155, 157, 201, 251, 307, 
316, 615a-1, 1302(a) and 1302(b); 5 U.S.C. 301 and Executive Order 
no. 10530.


Sec.  4.15  [Amended]

0
2. Amend Sec.  4.15 by removing paragraph (d).

[FR Doc. 2021-08651 Filed 4-27-21; 8:45 am]
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