[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 113 (Tuesday, June 12, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27327-27328]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-12627]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

[OMB 3060-0999]


Information Collection Approved by the Office of Management and 
Budget

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has received 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for a revision of a 
currently approved public information collection pursuant to the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. An agency may not conduct or sponsor a 
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB 
control number, and no person is required to respond to a collection of 
information unless it displays a currently valid control number. 
Comments concerning the accuracy of the burden estimates and any 
suggestions for reducing the burden should be directed to the person 
listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cathy Williams, Office of the Managing 
Director, at (202) 418-2918, or email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#286b495c4051067f4144444149455b684e4b4b064f475e"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="094a687d6170275e6065656068647a496f6a6a276e667f">[email protected]</span></a>.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The total annual reporting burdens and costs 
for the respondents are as follows:
    OMB Control Number: 3060-0999.
    OMB Approval Date: June 5, 2018.
    OMB Expiration Date: June 30, 2021.
    Title: Hearing Aid Compatibility Status Report and Section 20.19, 
Hearing Aid-Compatible Mobile Handsets (Hearing Aid Compatibility Act).
    Form Number: FCC Form 655.
    Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.
    Number of Respondents and Responses: 934 respondents; 934 
responses.
    Estimated Time per Response: 13 hours per response (average).
    Frequency of Response: On occasion and annual reporting 
requirements and third-party disclosure requirement.
    Obligation to Respond: Required to obtain or retain benefits. 
Statutory authority for this information collection is contained in 47 
U.S.C. Sections 151, 154(i), 157, 160, 201, 202, 208, 214, 301, 303, 
308, 309(j), 310 and 610 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended.
    Total Annual Burden: 12,140 hours.
    Total Annual Cost: No costs.
    Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: Information requested in the 
reports may include confidential information. However, covered entities 
are allowed to request that such materials submitted to the Commission 
be withheld from public inspection.
    Privacy Act Impact Assessment: No impact(s).
    Needs and Uses: The revision of this collection implements the 
final rules promulgated in the 2015 Fourth Report and Order, FCC 15-155 
(Fourth Report and Order), which expanded the scope of the rules due to 
a shift from Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS) to digital mobile 
service. We estimate that there will be a small increase in the number 
of respondents/responses, total annual burden hours, and total annual 
cost from the previously approved estimates.
    This collection is necessary to implement certain disclosure 
requirements that are part of the Commission's wireless hearing aid 
compatibility rule. In a Report and Order in WT Docket No. 01-309, FCC 
03-168, adopted and released in September 2003, implementing a mandate 
under the Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988, the Commission 
required digital wireless phone manufacturers and service providers to 
make certain digital wireless phones capable of effective use with 
hearing aids, label certain phones they sold with information about 
their compatibility with hearing aids, and report to the Commission (at 
first every six months, then on an annual basis) on the numbers and 
types of hearing aid-compatible phones they were producing or offering 
to the public. These reporting requirements were subsequently amended 
on several occasions, and the previous OMB-approved collection under 
this OMB control number included these modifications.

[[Page 27328]]

    On November 19, 2015, the Commission adopted final rules in a 
Fourth Report and Order, FCC 15-155 (Fourth Report and Order), that, 
among other changes, expanded the scope of the Commission's hearing aid 
compatibility provisions to cover handsets used with any digital 
terrestrial mobile service that enables two-way real-time voice 
communications among members of the public or a substantial portion of 
the public, including through the use of pre-installed software 
applications. Prior to 2018, the hearing aid compatibility provisions 
were limited only to handsets used with two-way switched voice or data 
services classified as Commercial Mobile Radio Service, and only to the 
extent they were provided over networks meeting certain architectural 
requirements that enable frequency reuse and seamless handoff. As a 
result of the Fourth Report and Order, beginning January 1, 2018, all 
device manufacturers and Tier I carriers that offer handsets falling 
under the expanded scope of covered handsets are required to comply 
with the Commission's hearing aid compatibility provisions, including 
annual reporting requirements on FCC Form 655. For other service 
providers that are not Tier I carriers, the expanded scope of the 
Commission's hearing aid compatibility provisions applies beginning 
April 1, 2018.
    Following release of the Fourth Report and Order, the Commission 
was required to amend FCC Form 655 to reflect the newly expanded scope 
of handsets covered by the hearing aid compatibility provisions, as 
well as to capture information regarding existing disclosure 
requirements clarified by the Commission in the Fourth Report and 
Order. As a consequence of the Fourth Report and Order, FCC Form 655 
filing and other requirements will apply to those newly-covered 
handsets offered by device manufacturers and service providers that 
have already been reporting annually on their compliance with the 
Commission's hearing aid compatibility provisions, as well to any 
device manufacturers and service providers that were previously exempt 
because they did not offer any covered handsets or services prior to 
2018.
    As a result, the Commission requested a revision of this collection 
in order to implement the final rules promulgated in the Fourth Report 
and Order, which expanded the scope of the rules due to a shift from 
Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS) to digital mobile service. We 
estimate that the expanded scope will increase the potential number of 
respondents subject to this collection and correspondingly increase the 
responses and burden hours. The minor language changes to the 
instructions to FCC Form 655 and to the form itself clarifying this 
expanded scope will help the Commission compile data and monitor 
compliance with the current version of the hearing aid compatibility 
rules while making more complete and accessible information available 
to consumers.

Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene Dortch,
Secretary, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2018-12627 Filed 6-11-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6712-01-P


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