[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 196 (Tuesday, October 12, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55283-55286]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-26519]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Notice of Public Information Collection(s) Being Reviewed by the
Federal Communications Commission, Comments Requested
October 4, 1999.
SUMMARY: The Federal Communications Commission, as part of its
continuing effort to reduce paperwork burden invites the general public
and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the
following information collection, as required by the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995, Pub. L. 104-13. An agency may not conduct or
sponsor a collection of information unless it displays a currently
valid 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 control
number. Comments are requested concerning: (a) 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; (b) the accuracy of the Commission's
burden estimate; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity
of the information collected; and (d) 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.
DATES: Written comments should be submitted on or before December 13,
1999. If you anticipate that you will be submitting comments, but find
it difficult to do so within the period of time allowed by this notice,
you should advise the contact listed below as soon as possible.
ADDRESSES: Direct all comments to Les Smith, Federal Communications
Commissions, 445 12th Street, S.W., Room 1-A804, Washington, DC 20554
or via the Internet to lesmith@fcc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or copies
of the information collections contact Les Smith at (202) 418-0217 or
via the Internet at lesmith@fcc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
OMB Control Number: 3060-0076.
Title: Annual Employment Report for Common Carriers.
Form Number: FCC Form 395.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 4000 respondents.
[[Page 55284]]
Estimated Time Per Response: 1 hour per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 4000 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: Annually, Recordkeeping.
Needs and Uses: The Annual Employment Report is submitted by
certain common carrier licensees and permittees. The data is intended
to assess compliance with equal employment opportunity requirements.
Data is used by the FCC, Congress, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
EEOC, NTIA and public interest groups.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0715.
Title: Implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996:
Telecommunications Carriers' Use of Customer Proprietary Network
Information and Other Customer Proprietary Network.
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Revision.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 6832 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 86.2 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 189,656 hours for modified collections.
588,917 hours for all collections under this control number.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $229,520.
Frequency of Response: On occasion, Recordkeeping, Third Party
Disclosure.
Needs and Uses: On February 26, 1998, the Commission released the
CPNI Order, 63 FR 20326, April 24, 1998, adopting rules implementing
the new statutory framework governing carrier use and disclosure of
customer proprietary network information (CPNI) created by section 222
of the Communications Act. CPNI includes, among other things, to whom,
where, and when a customer places a call, as well as the types of
service offerings to which the customer subscribes and the extent the
service is used. The Commission issued an Order on Reconsideration
which modified the CPNI Order, in part, to preserve the consumer
protections mandated by Congress while more narrowly tailoring our
rules, where necessary, to enable telecommunications carriers to comply
with the law in a more flexible and less costly manner. The Order on
Reconsideration reduces by half the burden of compliance with the
customer approval requirement. If carriers choose to use CPNI to market
telecommunications service offerings outside the customer's existing
service, they must obtain customer approval. By expanding the concept
of the total service approach to include CPE and information services,
the rules were modified to allow carriers to use CPNI without customer
approval in most instances to market CPE and information services.
Where carriers are required to obtain customer approval, they may still
do so through written, oral, or electronic means. The Order on
Reconsideration removes the audit mechanism entirely but requires that
carriers maintain records of sales and marketing campaigns. The Order
on Reconsideration reduces by half the time required to comply with the
recordkeeping requirement by limiting application to sales and
marketing campaigns. Carriers using CPNI for sales and marketing
campaigns must record the date and purpose of the campaign, and what
products and services were offered to customers. Carriers are required
to maintain these records for a period of at least one year. All the
collections will be used to ensure that telecommunications carriers
comply with the CPNI requirements and to implement section 222 of the
statute.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0721.
Title: One-Time Report of Local Exchange Companies of Cost
Accounting Studies.
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 400 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 50 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 20,000 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: On occasion.
Needs and Uses: Local exchange companies must submit, on a one-time
basis, cost accounting studies to identify the direct cost of central
office coin services. The requirement would be used to ensure that LECs
comply with their obligations under the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0719.
Title: Quarterly Report of IntraLATA Carriers Listing Payphone
Automatic Number Identifications (ANIs).
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 400 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 3.5 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 5600 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: Quarterly.
Needs and Uses: Pursuant to the mandate in Section 276(b)(1)(A) to
``establish a per call compensation plan to ensure that all payphone
service providers are fairly compensated for each and every completed
intrastate and interstate call'', 47 USC Section 276(b)(1)(A),
intraLATA carriers are required to provide to interexchange carriers a
quarterly report listing payphone ANIs. The report allows IXCs to
determine which dial-around calls are made from payphones. The data,
which must be maintained for at least 18 months after the close of a
compensation period, will facilitate verification of disputed ANIs. The
requirement is used to ensure that intraLATA carriers, and the IXCs
comply with their obligations under the 1996 Act.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0724.
Title: Annual Report of Interexchange Carriers Listing the
Compensation Amount Paid to Payphone Providers and the Number of
Payees.
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 275 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 2 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 550 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: Annually, Recordkeeping.
Needs and Uses: Interexchange carriers responsible for paying per-
call compensation must submit annual reports to the Common Carrier
Bureau listing the amount of compensation paid to payphone providers
and the number of payees. IXCs will also be required to initiate an
annual audit of their per-call tracking functions. This would help
ensure that all interexchange carriers are paying their respective
compensation obligations.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0726.
Title: Quarterly Report of Interexchange Carriers Listing the
Number of Dial-Around Calls for Which Compensation is Being Paid to
Payphone Owners.
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 275 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 30 minutes per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 550 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
[[Page 55285]]
Frequency of Response: Quarterly.
Needs and Uses: Interexchange carriers responsible for paying per-
call compensation to payphone providers must submit a quarterly list of
dial-around calls to those payphone providers. The payphone providers
need the list to calculate the compensation to be paid by the
interexchange carriers.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0729.
Title: Bell Operating Company Provision of Out-of-Region,
Interstate, Interexchange Services, Report and Order, CC Docket No. 96-
21, (Affiliated Company Recordkeeping Requirement).
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 7 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 6056 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 42,394 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: Recordkeeping.
Needs and Uses: In CC Docket No. 96-21, the Commission removed
dominant regulation for BOCs that provide out-of-region, interstate,
interexchange services through an affiliate that complies with certain
safeguards, in order to facilitate the efficient and rapid provision of
out-of-region, domestic, interstate, interexchange services by the
BOCs, as contemplated by the 1996 Act, while still protecting
ratepayers and competition in the interexchange market. These
safeguards requires, among other things, that the affiliate maintain
separate books of account from the LEC. The recordkeeping requirement
is to ensure that BOCs providing interexchange service through a
separate affiliate are in compliance with the Communications Act and
Commission policies and rules regarding BOC provision of out-of-region
interexchange services.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0748.
Title: Disclosure Requirements for Information Services Provided
Through Toll-Free Numbers, 47 CFR Section 64.1504.
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 3750 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 2.8 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 10,500 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: Third Party Disclosure.
Needs and Uses: 47 CFR Section 64.1504 imposes disclosure
requirements on entities that use toll-free numbers to provide
information services. The requirements are intended to ensure that
callers to toll-free numbers are: (1) Informed if charges will be
levied and (2) receive the information necessary to make an informed
decision whether to purchase an information service.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0743.
Title: Implementation of the Pay Telephone Reclassification and
Compensation Provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996--CC
Docket No. 96-128.
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities; States.
Number of Respondents: 4542 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 30 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 136,677 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: Third Party Disclosures.
Needs and Uses: The rules adopted in CC Docket No. 96-128: (1)
Establish a plan to ensure fair competition for each and every
completed intrastate and interstate call using a payphone; (2)
discontinue intrastate and interstate carrier access charge payphone
service elements and payments and intrastate and interstate payphone
subsidies from basic exchange services; (3) prescribe nonstructural
safeguards for BOC payphones; (4) permit the BOCs to negotiate with the
payphone location provider about a payphone's presubscribed interLATA
carrier; (5) permit all payphone providers to negotiate with the
location provider about a payphone's presubscribed interLATA carrier;
and (6) adopt guidelines for use by the state in establishing public
interest payphones to be located where there would otherwise not be a
payphone. The requirements contained in the Order are: State must
review their regulations concerning adequacy of local coin rate
disclosure and review them where necessary. States must review their
regulations concerning market entry or exit requirements and remove
them where necessary to ensure consistency with the Commission's
regulations. States must comply with the Commission's market-rate local
coin call requirement, except where they show proof of market failure.
Such a showing could consist of, for example, detailed summary of the
record of a state proceeding that examines the costs of providing
payphone service within that state and the reasons why the public
interest is served by having the state set rates within that market.
Each state must review whether it has adequately provided for public
interest payphones in a manner consistent with the Order. All payphones
are required to transmit specific payphone coding digits as a part of
their automatic number identification which will assist in identifying
them to compensation payors. Carriers must provide tracking of all
compensable calls received from payphones to ensure that each and every
completed call from a payphone is receiving compensation. Carriers are
required to initiate an annual verification of their per call tracking
functions for a period of two years to ensure that they are tracking
all of the calls for which they are obligated to pay compensation. LECs
must provide verification of disputed ANIs on request and in a timely
manner. LECs are required to notify the carrier-payors of each
payphone's disconnection on a basis that is as timely as possible. LECs
are required to affirmatively state on their bills to PSPs that the
bills are for payphone service to facilitate payment of compensation
and to avoid disputes. Incumbent LECs must file revised tariffs for
central office coin transmission services and CCL charges to ensure
that LEC services are priced reasonably and to not include subsidies.
Incumbent LECs and AT&T must either reclassify their payphone assets as
nonregulated or transfer them to a separate affiliate engaged in
nonregulated activities. If a payphone provider does not appear on the
LEC-provided customer-owned, coin-operated telephone lists, it must
provide alternative verification information to the IXC paying
compensation. Payphone providers are required to post the local coin
call rate within the informational placard on each payphone. LECs must
supply to carrier-payors, on demand, a list of emergency numbers so
that carrier-payors will know that they do not have to compensate
payphone providers for emergency calls. All the requirements are used
to ensure that interexchange carriers, payphone service providers,
LECs, and the states, comply with their obligations under the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0742.
Title: Telephone Number Portability (47 CFR Part 52, Subpart C
Sections 52.21-52.31).
Form Number: N/A.
[[Page 55286]]
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities; States.
Number of Respondents: 237 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 4.75 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 1,125 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: On occasion.
Needs and Uses: In the Memorandum Opinion and Order on
Reconsideration issued in CC Docket No. 95-116, released March 11,
1997, the Commission affirmed and clarified rules established in its
First Report and Order in the proceeding. The proceeding implemented
section 251(b)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, which
requires all LECs to offer number portability in accordance with
requirements prescribed by the Commission. The proceedings established
the following collections. Carriers participating in a field test of
number portability in the Chicago, Illinois areas were required to
jointly file with the Commission a report of their findings with 30
days after completion of the test. Sections 52.23(b) and 52.31 require
that long-term number portability be provided by LECs and CMRS
providers inside the 100 largest MSAs in switches for which another
carrier has made a specific request for number portability. A carrier
must make its specific requests for deployment of number portability in
particular switches at least in months before the deadline for
completion of number portability in that MSA. After carriers have
submitted requests for number portability, a wireline carrier or CMRS
provider must make readily available upon request a list of its
switches for which portability has been requested, and those for which
portability has not been requested. Section 52.25 requires state
regulatory commissions to file with the Commission a notification if
they opt to develop a state-specific database for the provision of
number portability in lieu of participating in a regional database
system. Section 52.25 permits carriers to challenge decisions made by
states to develop a state-specific number portability database in lieu
of participating in the regional databases by filing a petition with
the Commission. Sections 52.23 and 52.31 require carriers that are
unable to meet the deadlines for implementing a long-term number
portability solution to file with the Commission a petition to extend
the time by which implementation in its network will be completed. The
requirements were imposed to implement section 251 of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0165.
Title: Part 41, Franks, Section 41.31--Records to be Maintained and
Reports to be Filed.
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 68 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 6 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 408 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: Recordkeeping.
Needs and Uses: Section 210 of the Communications Act of 1934, as
amended, requires that common carriers subject to the Act maintain
records to reflect the name, address, etc., of persons holding
telephone or telegraph franks, so as to enable the Commission and/or
carriers to compile, if needed, reports in this area. Section 41.31 of
the Commission's rules implements Section 210. This information helps
to ensure that franks are being addressed fairly.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0147.
Title: Extension of Unsecured Credit for Interstate and Foreign--
Section 64.804.
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 13 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 8 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 104 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: Annually.
Needs and Uses: Pursuant to Section 64.804 of the Commission's
rules, communications common carriers with operating revenues exceeding
$1 million who extend unsecured credit to a candidate or person on
behalf of such candidates for Federal office must file with the FCC a
report including due and outstanding balances. The information is used
for monitoring purposes.
OMB Control Number: 3060-0749.
Title: Disclosure and Dissemination of Pay-Per Call Information, 47
CFR 64.1509.
Form Number: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
Number of Respondents: 25 respondents.
Estimated Time Per Response: 410 hours per response (avg.).
Total Annual Burden: 10,250 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Frequency of Response: Third party disclosure.
Needs and Uses: Section 64.1509 incorporates in the Commission's
rules the requirements of Sections 228(c)(2) and 228(d)(2)-(3) of the
Communications Act. Under these sections, common carriers that assign
telephone numbers to pay-per-call services must disclose to all
interested parties, upon request a list of all assigned pay-per-call
numbers. For each assigned number, carriers must also make available:
(1) A description of the pay-per-call service; (2) the total cost per
minute or other fees associated with the service; and (3) the service
provider's name, business address, and telephone number. In addition,
carriers handling pay-per-call services must establish a toll-free
number that consumer may call to receive information about pay-per-call
services. Carriers are required to provide statements of pay-per-call
rights and responsibilities to new telephone subscribers at the time
service is established and, although not required by statute, to all
subscribers annually. The disclosure requirements are intended to
ensure that consumers are able to obtain information that will enable
them to make informed choices about their use of pay-per-call services.
Federal Communications Commission.
Magalie Roman Salas,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 99-26519 Filed 10-8-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P
