Information Collections Being Reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission, 67466-67468 [2021-25820]

Agencies

• FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 225 (Friday, November 26, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 67466-67468]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-25820]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[OMB 3060-0292, OMB 3060-0743, 3060-1151; FR ID 59383]


Information Collections Being Reviewed by the Federal 
Communications Commission

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, 
and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, 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 
25, 2022. 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 
[email protected] and to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information about the 
information collection, contact Nicole Ongele, (202) 418-2991.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    OMB Control Number: 3060-0292.
    Title: Part 69--Access Charges (Section 69.605, Reporting and 
Distribution of Pool Access Revenues).
    Form Number: N/A.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit.
    Number of Respondents and Responses: 732 respondents; 8,773 
responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: 0.75 hours-1 hour.
    Obligation to Respond: Required to obtain or retain benefits. 
Statutory authority for this information collection is contained 47 
U.S.C. 154, 201, 202, 203, 205, 218 and 403 of the Communications Act 
of 1934, as amended.
    Frequency of Response: Annual and monthly reporting requirements 
and third party disclosure requirement.
    Total Annual Burden: 6,580 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: No cost.
    Privacy Act Impact Assessment: No impact(s).
    Nature of Extent of Confidentiality: The Commission is not 
requesting that the respondents submit confidential information to the 
FCC. Respondents may, however, request confidential treatment for 
information they believe to be confidential under 47 CFR 0.459 of the 
Commission's rules.
    Needs and Uses: Section 69.605 requires that access revenues and 
cost data shall be reported by participants in association tariffs to 
the association for computation of monthly pool revenues distributions. 
The association shall submit a report on or before February 1 of each 
calendar year describing the association's cost study review process 
for the preceding calendar year as well as the results of that process. 
For any revisions to the cost study results made or recommended by the 
association that would change the respective carrier's calculated 
annual common line or traffic sensitive revenue requirement by ten 
percent or more, the report shall include the following information:
    (1) Name of the carrier;
    (2) A detailed description of the revisions;
    (3) The amount of the revisions;
    (4) The impact of the revisions on the carrier's calculated common 
line and traffic sensitive revenue requirements; and
    (5) The carrier's total annual common line and traffic sensitive 
revenue requirement.
    The information is used by the Commission to compute charges in 
tariffs for access service (or origination and termination) and to 
compute revenue pool distributions. Neither

[[Page 67467]]

process could be implemented without this information.
    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 of a currently approved collection.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit.
    Number of Respondents and Responses: 4,471 respondents; 10,071 
responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: 0.50-100 hours.
    Obligation to Respond: Required to obtain or retain benefits. 
Statutory authority is contained in 47 U.S.C. 276 of the 
Telecommunications Act of 1996, as amended.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion, quarterly and monthly reporting 
requirements, recordkeeping requirement and third-party disclosure 
requirement.
    Total Annual Burden: 118,137 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: No cost.
    Privacy Act Impact Assessment: No impact(s).
    Nature of Extent of Confidentiality: The Commission is not 
requesting that the respondents submit confidential information to the 
FCC. Respondents may, however, request confidential treatment for 
information they believe to be confidential under 47 CFR 0.459 of the 
Commission's rules.
    Needs and Uses: This collection will be submitted as an extension 
of a currently approved collection to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) in order to obtain the full three-year clearance. The 
Commission promulgated rules and reporting requirements implementing 
section 276 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Among other things, 
the rules: (1) Establish fair compensation for every completed 
intrastate and interstate payphone calls; (2) discontinue intrastate 
and interstate access charge payphone service elements and payments, 
and intrastate and interstate payphone subsidies from basic exchange 
services; and (3) adopt guidelines for use by the states in 
establishing public interest payphones to be located where there would 
otherwise not be a payphone. The information collected is provided to 
third parties and to ensure that interexchange carriers, payphone 
service providers (``PSP'') LECs, and the states comply with their 
obligations under the 1996 Act.
    OMB Control Number: 3060-1151.
    Title: Sections 1.1411, 1.1412, and 1.1415 Pole Attachment Access 
Requirements.
    Form Number: N/A.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit.
    Number of Respondents and Responses: 1,313 respondents; 163,866 
responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: 0.50-6 hours.
    Frequency of Response: On-occasion reporting requirement, 
recordkeeping requirement, and third-party disclosure requirement.
    Obligation to Respond: Mandatory. Statutory authority for this 
information collection is contained in 47 U.S.C. 224.
    Total Annual Burden: 112,534 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: $6,750,000.
    Privacy Act Impact Assessment: No impact(s).
    Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: No questions of a 
confidential nature are asked.
    Needs and Uses: The Commission is requesting the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approval for this revised information 
collection. In Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing 
Barriers to Infrastructure Investment, WC Docket No. 17-84, WT Docket 
No. 17-70, Third Report and Order and Declaratory Ruling, FCC 18-111 
(2018) (Order), the Commission adopted rules that implement the pole 
attachment requirements in section 224 of the Communications Act of 
1934, as amended. The Order substantially revised 47 CFR 1.1411 and 
1.1412. It also added new 47 CFR 1.1415.
    Section 1.1411. In the Order, the Commission adopted a one-touch, 
make-ready (OTMR) process for when a telecommunications carrier or 
cable television system (new attacher) elects to do the work itself to 
prepare a utility pole for a simple wireline attachment in the 
communications space. As part of the OTMR process, the new attacher 
typically first conducts a survey of the affected poles, giving the 
utility and existing attachers a chance to be present for the survey. 
New attachers must elect the OTMR process in their pole attachment 
application and must demonstrate to the utility that the planned work 
qualifies for OTMR. The utility then must determine whether the pole 
attachment application is complete and whether the work qualifies for 
OTMR, and then must either grant or deny pole access and explain its 
decision in writing. The utility also can object to the new attacher's 
determination that the work qualifies for OTMR, and that objection is 
final and determinative so long as it is specific and in writing, 
includes all relevant evidence and information supporting its decision, 
made in good faith, and explains how such evidence and information 
relates to a determination that the make-ready is not simple. If the 
new attacher's OTMR application is approved, then it can proceed with 
OTMR work by giving advance notice to the utility and existing 
attachers and allowing them an opportunity to be present when OTMR work 
is being done. New attachers must provide immediate notice to affected 
utilities and existing attachers if outages or equipment damage is 
caused by their OTMR work. Finally, new attachers must provide notice 
to affected utilities and existing attachers after OTMR work is 
completed, allowing them to inspect the work and request remediation, 
if necessary. The Commission also adopted changes to its existing pole 
attachment timeline, which still will be used for complex work, work 
above the communications space on a utility pole, and in situations 
where new attachers do not want to elect OTMR. The Commission largely 
kept the existing pole attachment timeline intact, except for the 
following changes: (1) Revising the definition of a complete pole 
attachment application and establishing a timeline for a utility's 
determination whether an application is complete; (2) requiring 
utilities to provide at least three business days' advance notice of 
any surveys to attachers; (3) establishing a 30-day deadline for 
completion of all make-ready work in the communications space; (4) 
eliminating the 15-day utility make-ready period for communications 
space attachments; (5) streamlining the utility's notice requirements; 
(6) enhancing the new attacher's self-help remedy by making the remedy 
available for surveys and make-ready work for all attachments anywhere 
on the pole in the event that the utility or the existing attachers 
fail to meet the required deadlines; (7) providing notice requirements 
when new attachers elect self-help, such notices to be given when new 
attachers perform self-help surveys and make-ready work, when outages 
or equipment damage results from self-help work, and upon completion of 
self-help work to allow for inspection; (8) allowing utilities to meet 
the survey requirement by electing to use surveys previously prepared 
on the affected poles by new attachers; and (9) requiring utilities to 
provide detailed make-ready cost estimates and final invoices on a 
pole-by-pole basis if requested by new

[[Page 67468]]

attachers. Both utilities and existing attachers can deviate from the 
existing pole attachment make-ready timeline for reasons of safety or 
service interruption by giving written notice to the affected parties 
that includes a detailed explanation of the need for the deviation and 
a new completion date. The deviation shall be for a period no longer 
than necessary to complete make-ready on the affected poles, and the 
deviating party shall resume make-ready without discrimination when it 
returns to routine operations.
    Section 1.1412. The Commission required utilities to make 
available, and keep up-to-date, a reasonably sufficient list of 
contractors that they authorize to perform surveys and make-ready work 
that are complex or involve self-help work above the communications 
space of a utility pole. Attachers can request to add to the list any 
contractor that meets certain minimum qualifications, subject to the 
utility's ability to reasonably object. For simple work, a utility may, 
but is not required, to keep an up-to-date, reasonably sufficient list 
of contractors that they authorize to perform surveys and simple make-
ready work. For any utility-supplied contractor list, the utility must 
ensure that the contractors meet certain minimum requirements. 
Attachers can request to add to the list any contractor that meets the 
minimum qualifications, subject to the utility's ability to reasonably 
object. If the utility does not provide a list of approved contractors 
for surveys or simple make-ready, or no utility-approved contractor is 
available within a reasonable time period, then the new attacher may 
choose its own qualified contractor that meets the minimum 
requirements, subject to notice and the utility's ability to disqualify 
the chosen contractor for reasonable safety or reliability concerns.
    Section 1.1415. The Commission codified its policy that utilities 
may not require an attacher to obtain prior approval for overlashing on 
an attacher's existing wires or for third-party overlashing of an 
existing attachment when such overlashing is conducted with the 
permission of the existing attacher. In addition, the Commission 
adopted a rule that allows utilities to establish reasonable advance 
notice requirements for overlashing (up to 15 days' advance notice). If 
a utility requires advance notice for overlashing, then the utility 
must provide existing attachers with advance written notice of the 
notice requirement or include the notice requirement in the attachment 
agreement with the existing attacher. If, after receiving advance 
notice, the utility determines that an overlash would create a 
capacity, safety, reliability, or engineering issue, then it must 
provide specific documentation of the issue to the party seeking to 
overlash within the 15-day advance notice period, and the party seeking 
to overlash must address any identified issues before continuing with 
the overlash either by modifying its proposal or by explaining why, in 
the party's view, a modification is unnecessary. An overlashing party 
must notify the affected utility within 15 days of completion of the 
overlash and provide the affected utility at least 90 days to inspect 
the overlash. If damage or code violations are discovered by the 
utility during the inspection, then it must notify the overlashing 
party, provide adequate documentation of the problem, and elect to 
either fix the problem itself at the overlashing party's expense or 
require remediation by the overlashing party.

Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene Dortch,
Secretary, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2021-25820 Filed 11-24-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P