E6-18687. Notice of Public Information Collection(s) Being Reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission, Comments Requested

October 31, 2006.

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(s), as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, Public Law 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 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 Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) comments should be submitted on or before January 8, 2007. 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:

You may submit your all Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) comments by e-mail or U.S. postal mail. To submit your comments by e-mail send them to [e-mail]. To submit your comments by U.S. mail, mark them to the attention of Cathy Williams, Federal Communications Commission, Room 1-C823, 445 12th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20554.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For additional information about the information collection(s) send an e-mail to [e-mail] or contact Cathy Williams at [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

OMB Control Number: 3060-0692.

Title: Home Wiring Provisions.

Form Number: Not applicable.

Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.

Respondents: Individuals or households; business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 30,500.

Estimated Time per Response: 5 minutes—5 hours.

Frequency of Response: Recordkeeping requirement; on occasion reporting requirement; annual reporting requirement; third party disclosure requirement.

Total Annual Burden: 45,614 hours.

Total Annual Cost: None.

Privacy Impact Assessment: No impact(s).

Needs and Uses: This information collection accounts for the information collection requirement stated in 47 CFR 76.613, where MVPDs causing harmful signal interference may be required by the Commission's engineer in charge (EIC) to prepare and submit a report regarding the cause(s) of the interference, corrective measures planned or taken, and the efficacy of the remedial measures.

47 CFR 76.620 applies the Commission's signal leakage rules to all non-cable MVPDs. Our rules require that each cable system perform an independent signal leakage test annually, therefore, non-cable MVPDs will now be subject to the same requirement, although the Second Order on Reconsideration, FCC 03-9, has exempted small non-cable MVPDs. We recognize, however, that immediate compliance with these requirements may present hardships to existing non-cable MVPDs not previously subject to such rules. We will allow a five-year transition period from the effective date of these rules to afford non-cable MVPDs time to comply with our signal leakage rules other than 47 CFR 76.613. The transition period will apply only to systems of those non-cable MVPDs that have been substantially built as of January 1, 1998.

47 CFR 76.802, Disposition of Cable Home Wiring, gives individual video service subscribers in single unit dwellings and MDUs the opportunity to purchase their cable home wiring at replacement cost upon voluntary termination of service. In calculating hour burdens for notifying individual subscribers of their purchase rights, we make the following assumptions:

(1) There are approximately 20,000 MVPDs serving approximately 72,000,000 subscribers in the United States.

(2) The average rate of churn (subscriber termination) for all MVPDs is estimated to be 1% per month, or 12% per year.

(3) MVPDs own the home wiring in 50% of the occurrences of voluntary subscriber termination.

(4) Subscribers or property owners already have gained ownership of the wiring in the other 50% of occurrences (e.g., where the MVPD has charged the subscriber for the wiring upon installation, has treated the wiring as belonging to the subscriber for tax purposes, or where state and/or local law treats cable home wiring as a fixture).

(5) Where MVPDs own the wiring, we estimate that they intend to actually remove the wiring 5% of the time, thus initiating the disclosure requirement.

We believe in most cases that MVPDs will choose to abandon the home wiring because the cost and effort required to remove the wiring generally outweigh its value. The burden to disclose the information at the time of termination will vary depending on the manner of disclosure, e.g., by telephone, customer visit or registered mail. Virtually all voluntary service terminations are done by telephone.

In addition, 47 CFR 76.802 states that if a subscriber in an MDU declines to purchase the wiring, the MDU owner or alternative provider (where permitted by the MDU owner) may purchase the home wiring where reasonable advance notice has been provided to the incumbent.

(1) According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the nation's population was approximately 281,000,000.

(2) The American Housing Survey for the United States, 2001, Table 2-25, and the 2000 Census stated that the total number of living units of all types in the United States was approximately 106,000,000, or an average of 2.65 people per unit.

(3) The American Housing Survey also estimated that 24,600,000 occupied housing units were classified as “multi-units,” that is, they are in MDUs with two or more units per building.

(4) The American Housing Survey data also found that there were approximately 7,600,000 buildings classified as MDUs in the United States.

(5) Approximately 66,000,000 people resided in these 24,600,000 occupied housing units in these MDUs in 2000.

(6) We estimate that 2,000 MDU owners will provide advance notice to the incumbent MVPD that the MDU owner wishes to use the home run wiring to receive service from an alternative video service provider. 47 CFR 76.802 also states that, to inform subscribers of per-foot replacement costs, MVPDs may develop replacement cost schedules based on readily available information; if the MVPD chooses to develop such schedules, it must place them in a public file available for public inspection during regular business hours.

We estimate that 50% of MVPDs will develop such cost schedules to place in their public files. Virtually all individual subscribers terminate service via telephone, and few subscribers are anticipated to review cost schedules on public file.

47 CFR 76.804 Disposition of Home Run Wiring. We estimate the burden for notification and election requirements for building-by-building and unit-by-unit disposition of home run wiring as described below. Note that these requirements apply only when an MVPD owns the home run wiring in an MDU and does not (or will not at the conclusion of the notice period) have a legally enforceable right to remain on the premises against the wishes of the entity that owns or controls the common areas of the MDU or have a legally enforceable right to maintain any particular home run wire dedicated to a particular unit on the premises against the MDU owner's wishes.

We use the term “MDU owner” to include whatever entity owns or controls the common areas of an apartment building, condominium or cooperative. For building-by-building disposition of home run wiring, the MDU owner gives the incumbent service provider a minimum of 90 days' written notice that its access to the entire building will be terminated. The incumbent then has 30 days to elect what it will do with the home run wiring. Where parties negotiate a price for the wiring and are unable to agree on a price, the incumbent service provider must elect among abandonment, removal of the wiring, or arbitration for a price determination. Also, regarding cable home wiring, when the MDU owner notifies the incumbent service provider that its access to the building will be terminated, the incumbent provider must, within 30 days of the initial notice and in accordance with our home wiring rules:

(1) Offer to sell to the MDU owner any home wiring within the individual dwelling units which the incumbent provider owns and intends to remove, and

(2) provide the MDU owner with the total per-foot replacement cost of such home wiring.

The MDU owner must then notify the incumbent provider as to whether the MDU owner or an alternative provider intends to purchase the home wiring not later than 30 days before the incumbent's access to the building will be terminated. For unit-by-unit disposition of home run wiring, an MDU owner must provide at least 60 days' written notice to the incumbent MVPD that it intends to permit multiple MVPDs to compete for the right to use the individual home run wires dedicated to each unit. The incumbent service provider then has 30 days to provide the MDU owner with a written election as to whether, for all of the incumbent's home run wires dedicated to individual subscribers who may later choose the alternative provider's service, it will remove the wiring, abandon the wiring, or sell the wiring to the MDU owner.

In other words, the incumbent service provider will be required to make a single election for how it will handle the disposition of individual home run wires whenever a subscriber wishes to switch service providers; that election will then be implemented each time an individual subscriber switches service providers.

Where parties negotiate a price for the wiring and are unable to agree on a price, the incumbent service provider must elect among abandonment, removal of the wiring, or arbitration for a price determination. The MDU owner also must provide reasonable advance notice to the incumbent provider that it will purchase, or that it will allow an alternative provider to purchase, the cable home wiring when a terminating individual subscriber declines. If the alternative provider is permitted to purchase the wiring, it will be required to make a similar election during the initial 30-day notice period for each subscriber who switches back from the alternative provider to the incumbent MVPD.

While the American Housing Survey estimates that there were some 7,600,000 MDUs with 24,600,000 resident occupants in the United States in 2000, we estimate that there will be only 12,500 notices and 12,500 elections being made on an annual basis. In many buildings, the MDU owner will be unable to initiate the notice and election processes because the incumbent MVPD service provider continues to have a legally enforceable right to remain on the premises. In other buildings, the MDU owner may simply have no interest in acquiring a new MVPD service provider.

Federal Communications Commission.

Marlene H. Dortch,

Secretary.