2016-26902. Information Collection Being Reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission

AGENCY:

Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION:

Notice and request for comments.

SUMMARY:

As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or the Commission) invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the following information collection. Comments are requested concerning: 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; the accuracy of the Commission's burden estimate; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; 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; and ways to further reduce the information collection burden on small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. The FCC 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 PRA that does not display a valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number.

DATES:

Written PRA comments should be submitted on or before January 9, 2017. 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 PRA comments to Nicole Ongele, FCC, via email [e-mail] and to [e-mail].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

For additional information about the information collection, contact Nicole Ongele at [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

OMB Control Number: 3060-1126.

Title: Testing and Logging Requirements for Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA).

Form Number: Not applicable.

Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents and Responses: 80 Participating CMS Providers; 451,600 Responses.

Estimated Time per Response: 0.000694 hours (2.5 seconds) to generate each alert log; 2 hours to respond to each request for alert log data or information about geo-targeting.

Frequency of Response: Monthly and on occasion reporting requirements and recordkeeping requirement.

Obligation to Respond: Required to obtain or retain benefits. Statutory authority for this information collection is contained in 47 U.S.C. 151, 152, 154(i) and (o), 301, 301(r), 303(v), 307, 309, 335, 403, 544(g), 606 and 615 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, as well as by sections 602(a), (b), (c), (f), 603, 604 and 606 of the WARN Act.

Total Annual Burden: 125,390 hours.

Total Annual Cost: No cost.

Privacy Impact Assessment: No impact(s).

Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: Participating CMS Providers shall make available upon request to the Commission and FEMA, and to emergency management agencies that offer confidentiality protection at least equal to that provided in the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) their alert logs and information about their approach to geo-targeting insofar as the information pertains to alerts initiated by that emergency management agency.

Needs and Uses: The Commission adopted revisions to Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) rules to take advantage of the significant technological changes and improvements experienced by the mobile wireless industry since the passage of the Warning, Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act, and deployment of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to improve utility of WEA as a life-saving tool. This action will improve alert content, delivery and testing. With respect to information collection, in particular, the Commission adopted requirements for Participating CMS Providers to log the basic attributes of alerts they receive at their Alert Gateway, to maintain those logs for at least 12 months, and to make those logs available upon request to the Commission and FEMA, and to emergency management agencies that offer confidentiality protection at least equal to that provided by federal FOIA. The Commission also required Participating CMS Providers to disclose information regarding their capabilities for geo-targeting Alert Messages upon request to such emergency management agencies insofar as it would pertain to Alert Messages initiated by that emergency management agency.

These recordkeeping and reporting requirements have potential to increase emergency managers' confidence that WEA will work as intended when needed. This increased confidence in system availability will encourage emergency managers that do not currently use WEA to become authorized. These reporting and recordkeeping requirements also help to ensure a fundamental component of system integrity. Alert logs are necessary to establish a baseline for system integrity against which future iterations of WEA can be evaluated. Without records that can be used to describe the quality of system integrity, and the most common causes of message transmission failure, it will be difficult to evaluate how any changes to WEA that we may adopt subsequent to this Report and Order affect system integrity.

Federal Communications Commission.

Marlene H. Dortch,

Secretary, Office of the Secretary.