Public Information Collection Requirement Submitted to OMB for Emergency Review and Approval, 50964-50965 [E7-17507]

Agencies

• FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 171 (Wednesday, September 5, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50964-50965]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-17507]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION


Public Information Collection Requirement Submitted to OMB for 
Emergency Review and Approval

August 30, 2007.
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, 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 (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 Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) comments should be 
submitted on or before September 12, 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 contacts 
listed below as soon as possible.

ADDRESSES: Direct all PRA comments to Nicholas A. Fraser, Office of 
Management and Budget, via e-mail to nfraser@omb.eop.gov or via fax at 
202-395-5167, and to the Federal Communications Commission via e-mail 
to PRA@fcc.gov or by U.S. mail to Jerry Cowden, Federal Communications 
Commission, Room 1-B135, 445 12th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20554.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information contact 
Jerry Cowden via e-mail at PRA@fcc.gov or at 202-418-0447. If you would 
like to obtain or view a copy of this information collection you may do 
so by visiting the FCC PRA Web page at: https://www.fcc.gov/omd/pra.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Commission is requesting emergency OMB 
processing of this information collection and has requested OMB 
approval by September 19, 2007.
    OMB Control Number: None.
    Title: Information collection for Emergency Communications Back-Up 
System Report to Congress.
    Form No.: Not applicable.
    Type of Review: New collection.
    Respondents: Businesses or other for-profit; not-for-profit 
institutions; and state, local or tribal governments.
    Number of Respondents: 45 respondents; 45 responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: 40 hours.
    Frequency of Response: One-time reporting.
    Obligation to Respond: Voluntary.
    Total Annual Burden: 1,800 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: $33,000. This is based on an estimate that half 
the respondents (22) will fly a representative (or representatives) the 
equivalent of a coast-to-coast round trip to Washington, DC and will 
have lodging for one night. The average cost of a single round trip 
fare and one night lodging is estimated to be $1500.
    Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: The Commission will work with 
respondents to ensure that their concerns regarding the confidentiality 
of any proprietary or business-sensitive information are resolved in a 
manner consistent with the Commission's rules.
    Privacy Act Impact Assessment: This information collection does not 
affect individuals or households, and therefore a privacy impact 
assessment is not required.
    Needs and Uses: The information collection sought will enable the 
Commission to fulfill its obligation under the Implementing 
Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (Act), Public Law 
110-53. The purpose of the Act is to ``provide for the implementation 
of the recommendations of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks 
Upon the United States.'' Towards this end, the Act mandates that the 
Commission ``shall conduct a vulnerability assessment of the Nation's 
critical communications and information systems infrastructure and 
shall evaluate the technical feasibility of creating a back-up 
emergency communications system that complements existing 
communications resources and takes into account next generation and 
advanced communications technologies.'' The Commission must submit a 
report to Congress that details the findings of this evaluation not 
later than 180 days after the date of enactment of the Act (since the 
Act was enacted on August 3, 2007, the report will be due to Congress 
on January 30, 2008).
    To complete this report, the Commission seeks to collect 
information primarily through face-to-face meetings, phone calls 
(including conference calls), and e-mail correspondence with commercial 
service and network operators (i.e., private satellite, wireline, and 
wireless operators, circuit and packet network operators), users (or 
owners) of emergency communication systems and networks, (e.g., 
emergency responders including first responders, 9-1-1 system and 
dispatch operators, federal, state and local emergency agencies), and 
their associations, manufacturers of public safety equipment and 
emergency communications networks and systems, operators of networks 
for emergency responders, and standards organizations and industry 
groups working on public safety equipment and emergency communications 
networks and systems and standards. Information will be sought 
concerning emergency communications networks, including user devices, 
network equipment, operations processes and operations systems, and 
concerning the feasibility of commercial service providers to support 
the needs of public safety, including: (1) Technical capabilities and 
characteristics of equipment (e.g., analog/digital, power, range, 
access protocol, broadband/wideband/narrowband, etc.), (2) technical 
capabilities and characteristics of commercial services to support the 
needs of public safety, (3) cost and deployment of commercial services 
for

[[Page 50965]]

use by public safety, (4) cost of user devices and network equipment of 
emergency communications networks (e.g., unit cost, maintenance/upgrade 
cost, etc.), and the cost of operations and operations systems 
(including feature upgrades) for emergency communications networks and 
services, (5) deployment of user devices, network equipment, and 
operations processes and equipment of emergency communications systems 
(e.g., type of systems deployed or to be deployed), number of units 
deployed/sold, etc.), (6) standardization of user devices, network 
equipment, and operations interfaces of emergency communications 
systems (e.g., standard/proprietary, standard activities, etc.), (7) 
interoperability (i.e., the ability of communications among different 
systems, devices and groups) of user groups, user devices, network 
equipment, and operations processes and equipment of emergency 
communications systems (e.g., interoperability among first responders 
within a jurisdiction, among jurisdictions using the same and different 
network technologies), (8) spectrum usage of user devices and network 
equipment of emergency communications systems (e.g., frequencies of 
operation, shared/dedicated spectrum, etc.), (9) applications and 
application requirements for end users and the technical requirements 
for such applications including bandwidth needs, (10) operations 
systems features and operations processes supporting emergency network 
operation during an emergency, (11) service capabilities (e.g., voice, 
data, video, mobile to mobile communications, etc.), (12) evolutionary 
trend of user devices, network equipment, and operations of emergency 
communications systems (e.g., next generation, migration path, etc.), 
(13) backhaul connectivity of network equipment and facilities (e.g., 
commercial/private, wired/wireless, capacity, etc.), (14) description 
of network technology and architecture (e.g., whether the network 
design accommodates access to emergency responders from other 
jurisdictions, capability of architecture to support resiliency in 
disaster situations, etc.), (15) operations budget for the network, 
(16) responsibilities of the organizations operating the networks, 
including service provisioning, traffic management and network 
maintenance, especially during an emergency, (17) plans, if any, for 
restoring emergency communication services or reverting to backup 
networks in the event that a primary emergency communications network 
is damaged or destroyed, (18) ability of existing emergency 
communications networks to back up or complement the communication 
resources of other emergency communications networks, (19) ability to 
rapidly increase emergency communication network capacity in the event 
that the capacity limits of the network are exceeded in a major 
disaster, (20) a description of the role of ``core services'' such as 
authentication and agency locator services, whether and how they are 
implemented in existing and planned networks, and their costs, (21) a 
description of the processes and systems used or planned to connect 
emergency responders to a back-up network in an emergency, and (22) 
plans to restore emergency communications services if the network over 
which they are provided is damaged, destroyed, or sufficiently 
congested to be impaired or unusable (e.g., changes in operations 
staffing in emergency conditions, dynamic bandwidth allocation to users 
or networks, back-up communications for other emergency communications 
services or networks), other administrative or planning issues 
associated with the deployment and maintenance of such backup national 
emergency communications capabilities.

Federal Communications Commission.
William F. Caton,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. E7-17507 Filed 9-4-07; 8:45 am]
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