[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 49 (Friday, March 13, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12468-12471]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-6424]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Notice of Public Information Collections Being Reviewed by the
Federal Communications Commission
March 9, 1998.
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 collections, as required by the Paperwork
Reduction Act 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
[[Page 12469]]
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, 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 information techniques or other forms of information
technology.
DATES: Written comments should be submitted on or before May 12, 1998.
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 Judy Boley, Federal Communications
Commission, Room 234, 1919 M St., N.W., Washington, DC 20554 or via
internet to jboley@fcc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or copies
of the information collections contact Judy Boley at 202-418-0214 or
via internet at jboley@fcc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
OMB Approval No.: 3060-0736.
Title: Implementation of the Non-Accounting Safeguards of Sections
271 and 272 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, CC Docket
No. 96-149.
Form No.: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Respondents: Business or other for profit.
Number of Respondents: 5.
Estimated Time Per Response: 60.6 hours per response (avg.).
Frequency of Response: On occasion reporting requirement.
Total Annual Burden: 303 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Needs and Uses: Section 272 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
requires that BOCs make information available to third parties if it
makes that information available to its section 272(a) affiliates. In
an Order released February 6, 1998, the Commission's Common Carrier
Bureau resolved questions regarding the application of sections 10 and
272 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, (Act) to the
provision of E911 services by the Bell Operating Companies (BOCs). Bell
Operating Companies, Petitions for Forbearance from the Application of
Section 272 of the Communications Act of 1934, As Amended, to Certain
Activities, CC Docket No. 96-149, DA 98-220, Memorandum Opinion and
Order (Com. Car. Bur. Feb. 6, 1998) (February 6 Order). E911 services
enable emergency service personnel to identify the location of the
party calling 911, and are essential to the safety of many Americans.
In the February 6 Order, the Bureau determined that the BOCs' E911
services are interLATA information services. One consequence of this
determination was that each BOC had an obligation under section
272(a)(2)(C) of the Act to provide E911 services only through a
separate affiliate. In the February 6 Order, the Bureau forbore from
the application of this separate affiliate requirement pursuant to the
forbearance authority in section 10 of the Act, thus permitting the
BOCs to provide E911 services on an integrated basis. The Bureau
determined that requiring the BOCs to provide E911 services only
through separate affiliates would have increased the cost, but not the
quality, of those services. In the February 6 Order, the Bureau
maintained the substance of the statutory nondiscrimination requirement
by requiring each BOC to provide unaffiliated entities with all listing
information, including unlisted and unpublished numbers as well as the
numbers of other local exchange carriers' customers, that the BOC uses
to provide E911 services, even though that Order was permitting the
BOCs to provide those services on an integrated basis. The Bureau
required that this listing information be provided at the same rates,
terms, and conditions, if any, the BOC charges or imposes on its own
E911 services. The BOCs are already required to account for their E911
services on the books of account that they maintain in accordance with
Part 32 of the Commissions rules. The Commission requires that the BOCs
treat their E911 serves as nonregulated activities for federal
accounting purposes to the extent they involve storage and retrieval
functions included within the statutory definition of information
service. The BOCs shall record any charges they impute for their E911
services in their revenue accounts. The BOCs shall account for any
imputed charges by debiting their nonregulated operating revenue
accounts and crediting their regulated revenue accounts by the amounts
of the imputed charges. The BOCs shall make any changes to their cost
allocation manuals necessary to reflect this account. The BOCs'
independent auditors shall include this accounting in their review of
the BOCs compliance with their cost allocation manuals. The
requirements will be used to ensure that BOCs comply with the
nondiscrimination requirements under the 1996 Act.
OMB Approval No.: 3060-0785.
Title: Changes to the Board of Directors of the National Exchange
Carrier Association and the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal
Service, CC docket Nos. 97-21 and 96-45.
Form No.: FCC Form 457.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Respondents: Business or other for profit.
Number of Respondents: 5,000.
Estimated Time Per Response: 11.13 hours per response (avg.).
Frequency of Response: On occasion reporting requirement.
Total Annual Burden: 55,650 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden:
$4,903,000.
Needs and Uses: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 directed the
Commission to initiate a rulemaking to reform our system of universal
service so that universal service is preserved and advanced as markets
move toward competition. On May 8, 1997, the Commission released the
Report and Order on Universal Service (Universal Service Order) in CC
Docket 96-45 that established new federal universal service support
mechanisms consistent with the universal service provisions of section
254. In the Fourth Order on Reconsideration in CC Docket No. 96-45,
Report and Order in CC Docket Nos. 96-45, 96-262, 94-1, 91-213, 95-72
(adopted December 30, 1997, released December 30, 1997), the Commission
reconsidered certain aspects of the Universal Service Order and
exempted additional entities from universal service contribution and
reporting requirements. Broadcasters and schools, colleges,
universities, rural health care providers, and systems integrators that
derive de minimis amounts of revenue from the resale of
telecommunications will not be required to contribute to universal
service. Entities whose annual contribution would be less than $10,000
will not be required to contribute to universal service or comply with
universal service reporting requirements. Contributors exempt from
filing and contributing because of de minimis revenues must complete
and retain the FCC 457 worksheet and make it available to the
Commission or to the Universal Service Administrator upon request.
Underlying carriers should
[[Page 12470]]
include revenues derived from providing telecommunications to entities
qualifying for the de minimis exemption in line 34-47, where
appropriate of their Universal Service Worksheet. The Universal Service
Worksheet, FCC Form 457 was revised to make it consistent with recent
actions taken by the Commission in the universal service proceeding.
The information will be used by the Commission and the Administrator or
Temporary Administrator to calculate contributions to the universal
service support mechanisms.
OMB Approval No.: 3060-0536.
Title: Rules and Requirements for Telecommunications Relay Services
(TRS) Interstate Cost Recovery.
Form No.: FCC Form 431.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Respondents: Business or other for profit.
Number of Respondents: 5,000.
Estimated Time Per Response: 3.11 hours per response (avg.).
Frequency of Response: On occasion reporting requirement.
Total Annual Burden: 15,593 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Needs and Uses: Title IV of the Americans with Disabilities Act,
Public Law 101-336, Section 401, 104 Stat. 327, 366-69 (codified at 47
U.S.C. Section 225) requires the Federal Communications Commission to
ensure that telecommunications relay services are available to persons
with hearing and speech disabilities in the United States. Among other
things, the Commission is required by 47 U.S.C. 225(d)(3) to enact and
oversee a shared-funding mechanism (TRS Fund) for recovering the costs
of providing interstate TRS. The Commission's regulations concerning
the TRS Fund are codified at 47 C.F.R. 64.604(c)(4). Pursuant to these
regulations, the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) has been
appointed Administrator of the TRS Fund. The Commission's rules require
all carriers providing interstate telecommunications services to
contribute to the TRS Fund on an annual basis. Contributions are the
product of the carrier's gross interstate revenues for the previous
year and a contribution factor determined annually by the Commission.
The collected contributions are used to compensate TRS providers for
the costs of providing interstate TRS service. The Commission releases
an order each year approving the contribution factor, payment rate and
TRS Fund Worksheet for the following year. Accordingly, on December 22,
1997, the Commission's Common Carrier Bureau, acting under delegated
authority, released an order approving the contribution factor for the
April 1998 through March 1999 contribution period and the 1998 TRS Fund
Worksheet (FCC Form 431) and also making several revisions to the form.
The data in the report will be used to ensure that carriers properly
fund interstate TRS. All carriers providing interstate
telecommunications service must file this worksheet. Other
telecommunications carriers may voluntarily file this worksheet. The
requested information is used to administer the TRS Fund. Information
is used to calculate a national average to recover the total interstate
TRS revenue requirements and to determine the appropriate payment due
to the TRS providers participating in the shared-funding plan.
OMB Approval No.: 3060-0814.
Title: Section 54.301 Local Switching Support and Local Switching
Support Data Collection Form and Instructions.
Form No.: N/A.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Respondents: Business or other for profit.
Number of Respondents: 192.
Estimated Time Per Response: 21.55 hours per response (avg.).
Frequency of Response: On occasion reporting requirement; annually.
Total Annual Burden: 4,138 hours.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Needs and Uses: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 directed the
Commission to initiate a rulemaking to reform our system of universal
service so that universal service is preserved and advanced as markets
move toward competition. On May 8, 1997, the Commission released the
Report and Order on Universal Service (Universal Service Order) in CC
Docket 96-45 that established new federal universal service support
mechanisms consistent with the universal service provisions of section
254. In the Fourth Order on Reconsideration in CC Docket No. 96-45,
Report and Order in CC Docket Nos. 96-45, 96-262, 94-1, 91-213, 95-72
(adopted December 30, 1997, released December 30, 1997), the Commission
reconsiders certain aspects of the Universal Service Order. Among other
things, the Fourth Order on Reconsideration adopts a precise
methodology for the universal service administrator to use in
calculating the average unseparated local switching revenue
requirement. Although this rule generally requires carriers to submit
data on October 1 of each year, the universal service administrator
must collect data from carriers that do not participate in the NECA
common line pool immediately to prepare for the 1998 year. Each
incumbent local exchange carrier that is not a member of the NECA
Common Line tariff, that has been designated an eligible
telecommunications carrier, and that serves a study area with 50,000 or
fewer access lines shall, for each study area, provide the
Administrator with the projected total unseparated dollar amount
assigned to each account in Section 54.301(b) for 1998. Of the carriers
that do not participate in the NECA common line pool, 20 of these
carriers are ``average schedule'' companies as defined in Part
69.605(c) of the Commission's rules. Each incumbent local exchange
carrier that is not a member of the NECA Common Line tariff, that is an
average schedule company, that has been designated an eligible
telecommunications carrier, and that serves a study area with 50,000 or
fewer access lines shall, for each study area, provide the
Administrator with their total number of access lines, total number of
central offices, and projected access minutes for 1998. These companies
receive local switching support calculated pursuant to section
54.301(f), whereas the remaining companies receive support calculated
pursuant to section 54.301(b). This data request is necessary to
calculate the average unseparated local switching revenue requirement.
This revenue requirement calculation is necessary to calculate the
amount of local switching support that carriers will receive. This data
request is necessary to calculate the average unseparated local
switching revenue requirement.
OMB Approval No.: 3060-0819.
Title: Lifeline Assistance (Lifeline), Lifeline Connection
Assistance (Link Up) Reporting Worksheet and Instructions (47 CFR
54.400-54.417).
Form No.: FCC Form 497.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Respondents: Business or other for profit.
Number of Respondents: 1,500 respondents (18,000 responses).
Estimated Time Per Response: 3 hours per response (avg.)
Frequency of Response: On occasion reporting requirement; monthly;
quarterly; semi-annually.
Total Annual Burden: 42,000.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.
Needs and Uses: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 directed the
Commission to initiate a
[[Page 12471]]
rulemaking to reform our system of universal service so that universal
service is preserved and advanced as markets move toward competition.
On May 8, 1997, the Commission released a Report and Order on Universal
Service (Universal Service Order) in CC Docket 96-45 that established
new federal universal service support mechanisms consistent with
section 254. In the Universal Service Order, the Commission expanded
and made competitively neutral its programs for low-income consumers,
Lifeline and Link Up. On December 30, 1997, the Commission released a
Fourth Order on Reconsideration that amended some of the Lifeline and
Link Up rules. The following describes the universal service support
reimbursement available to eligible telecommunications carriers for
providing Lifeline and Link Up programs to qualifying low-income
customers: Eligible telecommunications carriers are permitted to
receive universal service support reimbursement for offering Lifeline
service to qualifying low-income customers; eligible telecommunications
carriers may receive universal service support reimbursement for the
revenue they forego in reducing their customary charge for commencing
telecommunications service and for providing a deferred schedule for
payment of the charges assessed for commencing service for which the
consumer does not pay interest, in conformity with 47 CFR 54.411;
eligible telecommunications carriers providing toll-limitation services
(TLS) for qualifying low-income subscribers will be compensated from
universal service mechanisms for the incremental cost of providing
either toll blocking or toll control; and eligible telecommunications
carriers that serve qualifying low-income consumers who have toll
blocking shall receive universal service support reimbursement for
waiving the Presubscribed Interexchange Carriers Charge (PICC) for
Lifeline customers. FCC Form 497 implements the Lifeline and Link Up
reimbursement programs. This information is necessary in order for
eligible telecommunications carriers to receive universal service
support reimbursement for providing Lifeline and Link Up.
Federal Communications Commission.
Magalie Roman Salas,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 98-6424 Filed 3-12-98; 8:45 am]
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