Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to Infrastructure Investment, 60317-60319 [2024-16209]

Agencies

• FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 143 (Thursday, July 25, 2024)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 60317-60319]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-16209]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

47 CFR Part 1

[WC Docket No. 17-84; FCC 23-109; FR ID 232182]


Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers 
to Infrastructure Investment

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Final rule; announcement of effective date.

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SUMMARY: In this document, the Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) 
announces that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved, 
for a period of three years, the information collection associated with 
the Commission's revised pole attachment rules. This document is 
consistent with Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing 
Barriers to Infrastructure Investment, Fourth Report and Order, 
Declaratory Ruling, FCC 23-109, which stated that the Bureau would 
publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective 
date of the revised rules.

DATES: Amendatory instruction 2 (adding Sec.  1.1411(c)(4)) and 
amendatory instruction 4 (adding Sec.  1.1415), published at 89 FR 
2151, January 12, 2024, are effective on July 25, 2024

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Ray, Attorney Advisor, 
Wireline Competition Bureau, at (202) 418-0357, or by email at 
[email protected]. For additional information concerning the 
Paperwork Reduction Act information collection requirements, contact 
Nicole Ongele at (202) 418-2991 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On December 13, 2023, the Commission adopted 
Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to 
Infrastructure Investment, Fourth Report and Order, Declaratory Ruling, 
FCC 23-109, published at 89 FR 2151, January 12, 2024. In the Fourth 
Report and Order, the Commission adopted a revision to 47 CFR 1.1411 
that provides communications providers with information about the 
status of the utility poles they plan to use as part of their broadband 
buildouts. The Commission also added new 47 CFR 1.1415 that creates a 
new expedited process for the Commission's review and assessment of 
pole attachment disputes that impede or delay broadband deployment and 
established FCC Form 5653--Request for RBAT Review and Assessment--to 
initiate the expedited process. The Commission stated that these rule 
changes may contain new or modified information collection requirements 
and would not become effective until OMB completes its review of any 
information collection requirements that the Bureau determined is 
required under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Commission also 
directed the Bureau to announce the effective date for the revision to 
Sec.  1.1411 and new Sec.  1.1415 by subsequent public release.
    On July 2, 2024, OMB approved, for a period of three years, the 
information collection requirements related to the pole attachment 
rules contained in the Fourth Report and Order. The OMB Control Number 
is 3060-1151. The Bureau publishes this document as an announcement of 
the effective date of the pole attachment rules adopted in the Fourth 
Report and Order, as well as FCC Form 5653. If you have any comments on 
the burden estimates listed below, or how the Commission can improve 
the collections and reduce any burdens caused thereby, please contact 
Nicole Ongele, Federal Communications Commission, 45 L Street NE, 
Washington, DC 20554. Please include the OMB Control Number 3060-1151 
in your correspondence. The Commission also will accept your comments 
via email at [email protected]. To request materials in accessible formats 
for people with disabilities (Braille, large print, electronic files, 
audio format), send an email to [email protected] or call the Consumer and 
Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530 (voice), (202) 418-0432 
(TTY).

Synopsis

    As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
3507), the Bureau is notifying the public that it received final OMB 
approval on July 2, 2024, for the information collection requirements 
contained in the changes to the Commission's pole attachment rules in 
47 CFR 1.1411 and 1.1415, as well as FCC Form 5653.
    Under 5 CFR part 1320, an agency may not conduct or sponsor a 
collection of information unless it displays a current, valid OMB 
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 current, valid OMB Control Number.
    The foregoing notification is required by the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13, October 1, 1995, and 44 U.S.C. 3507.
    The total annual reporting burdens and costs for the affected 
respondents are as follows:

[[Page 60318]]

    OMB Control Number: 3060-1151.
    OMB Approval Date: July 2, 2024.
    OMB Expiration Date: July 31, 2027.
    Title: Sections 1.1411, 1.1412, 1.1415, and 1.1416 Pole Attachment 
Access and Dispute Resolution Requirements.
    Form Number: FCC Form 5653.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently-approved collection.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
    Number of Respondents and Responses: 1,380 respondents; 165,009 
responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: 0.25-5 hours.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion reporting requirement and third-
party disclosure requirements.
    Obligation to Respond: Mandatory or required to obtain benefits. 
Statutory authority for this information collection is contained in 47 
U.S.C. 224.
    Total Annual Burden: 120,980 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: $1,800.
    Needs and Uses: The Commission received OMB approval for a revision 
to an existing information collection, OMB Collection No. 3060-1151. In 
Accelerating Wireline Broadband Deployment by Removing Barriers to 
Infrastructure Investment, Fourth Report and Order, Declaratory Ruling, 
FCC 23-109, published at 89 FR 2151, January 12, 2024, 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, redesignated existing 47 CFR 
1.1415 as 47 CFR 1.1416, and added a new 47 CFR 1.1415.
    Section 1.1411. In the Order, the Commission adopted regulations 
requiring utilities to share information about their poles with 
prospective telecommunications and cable attachers. The Commission 
created this requirement to help improve the attachment process and 
potentially reduce disputes, thus facilitating broadband deployment. 
Specifically, the Order requires utilities to provide to potential 
attachers, upon request, the information contained in their most recent 
cyclical pole inspection reports, or any intervening, periodic reports 
created before the next cyclical inspection, for the poles covered by a 
submitted attachment application, including whether any of the affected 
poles have been ``red tagged'' by the utility for replacement and the 
scheduled replacement date or timeframe (if any). For the purposes of 
this new transparency requirement, a cyclical pole inspection report is 
any report that a utility creates in the normal course of its business 
that sets forth the results of the routine inspection of its poles 
during the utility's normal pole inspection cycle, while a periodic 
pole inspection report is any report that a utility creates in the 
normal course of its business that sets forth the results of the 
inspection of any of its poles outside the utility's normal pole 
inspection cycle. When asking for information about the status of a 
utility's poles for a planned buildout, the attacher must submit its 
information request no earlier than contemporaneously with an 
attachment application. The utility will have ten business days to 
respond to the request. Where an attacher amends its application based 
on the information it receives from the utility, the utility will have 
the option to restart the 45-day period for responding to the 
application on the merits and conducting the required make-ready 
survey. Regardless of whether the utility elects to restart the 45-day 
response period, any additional survey costs necessitated by the 
amended application, such as a second survey after a survey for the 
original application has been completed, will be borne by the new 
attacher consistent with the new attacher's obligation to pay for make-
ready costs associated with its application. The Commission also 
required utilities to retain copies, in whatever form they were 
created, of any such cyclical or periodic pole inspection reports they 
conduct in the normal course of business, until such time as the 
utility completes a superseding cyclical pole inspection report 
covering the poles included in the attachment application. The 
Commission reiterated that utilities are required to provide only the 
information they already possess and track in the normal course of 
conducting pole inspections at the time of the attacher's request for 
data. The Commission did not require utilities to collect or create new 
information for the purpose of responding to such requests or to 
provide all information they may possess on the affected poles outside 
their pole inspection reports. The Commission found that adopting this 
limited requirement achieves a balance between a potential attacher's 
need for more information about the poles that it plans to use as part 
of a broadband buildout and the utility's interest in minimizing the 
burden of mandatory disclosures.
    Section 1.1415. To expedite the resolution of pole attachment 
disputes that impede or delay active broadband deployment projects, the 
Commission established the Rapid Broadband Assessment Team (RBAT), 
which will consist of one or more staff from the Commission's 
Enforcement Bureau and one or more staff from the Commission's Wireline 
Competition Bureau. The Commission created the RBAT in an effort to 
make the Commission's pole attachment dispute resolution process more 
responsive and adaptable with the goal of facilitating broadband 
deployment. The Order charged the RBAT with expediting the resolution 
of such disputes by swiftly engaging key stakeholders, gathering 
relevant information, distilling issues in dispute, and recommending to 
the parties, where appropriate, an abbreviated mediation process, 
placement of a complaint (or portion of a complaint) on the 
Commission's Accelerated Docket based on consideration of specified 
criteria, and/or any other action that the RBAT determines will help 
the parties resolve their dispute. To request RBAT review and 
assessment of a dispute that a party to the dispute contends is 
impeding or delaying deployment of broadband facilities, the party must 
first notify the Chief of the Enforcement Bureau's Market Disputes 
Resolution Division (MDRD) of the request by phone and in writing. The 
MDRD Chief will direct the party to FCC Form 5653--Request for RBAT 
Review and Assessment--on the MDRD website and to instructions for 
completing and electronically transmitting the form to the RBAT. The 
form will elicit information relevant to the scope and nature of the 
dispute, and to whether the dispute is appropriate for expedited 
mediation and/or placement on the Accelerated Docket. The information 
submitted by a party on the FCC Form 5653 will assist the RBAT in 
efficiently reviewing and assessing the party's dispute and in 
providing guidance on the most effective means of resolving it. The 
RBAT also may request that one or both parties provide the RBAT with 
documentation or other information relevant to the dispute. After 
reviewing the parties' submissions, the RBAT will provide guidance and 
advice to the parties on the most effective means of resolving their 
dispute, including staff-supervised mediation, use of the Accelerated 
Docket, and/or other action. Should the RBAT recommend staff-supervised 
mediation, it shall be conducted pursuant to 47 CFR 1.737, the 
requirements of which may be modified or waived as appropriate in this 
context or as needed in light of the facts or circumstances of a 
particular case. In the event that the parties are unable to settle 
their dispute, and a prospective complainant seeks placement of its 
complaint on the Accelerated Docket,

[[Page 60319]]

the RBAT will decide whether the complaint or a portion of the 
complaint is suitable for inclusion on the Accelerated Docket based on 
a totality of the factors listed in 47 CFR 1.1415(e).

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 1

    Telecommunications, cable, utility, procedures, filing 
requirements.

Federal Communications Commission
Katura Jackson,
Federal Register Liaison.
[FR Doc. 2024-16209 Filed 7-24-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P