55080 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 186 / Wednesday, September 24, 2008 / Notices 

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS 

COMMISSION 

Notice of Public Information 

Collection(s) Being Submitted for 

Review to the Office of Management 

and Budget 

September 18, 2008. 

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(s), as 

required by the Paperwork Reduction 

Act (PRA) of 1995, 44 U.S.C. 3501–3520. 

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 November 24, 

2008. If you anticipate that you will be 

submitting PRA comments, but find it 

difficult to do so within the period of 

time allowed by this notice, you should 

advise the FCC contact listed below as 

soon as possible. 

ADDRESSES: Direct all PRA comments to 

Nicholas A. Fraser, Office of 

Management and Budget, 202–395– 

5887, or via fax at 202–395–5167 or via 

Internet at 

Nicholas_A._Fraser@omb.eop.gov and 

to Judith-B.Herman@fcc.gov, Federal 

Communications Commission, or an email to PRA@fcc.gov. To view a copy of 

this information collection request (ICR) 

submitted to OMB: (1) Go to the Web 

page http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRAMain, (2) look for the section of the 

Web page called ‘‘Currently Under 

Review’’, (3) click on the downwardpointing arrow in the ‘‘Select Agency’’ 

box below the ‘‘Currently Under 

Review’’ heading, (4) select ‘‘Federal 

Communications Commission’’ from the 

list of agencies presented in the ‘‘Select 

Agency’’ box, (5) click the ‘‘Submit’’ 

button to the right of the ‘‘Select 

Agency’’ box, and (6) when the list of 

FCC ICRs currently under review 

appears, look for the title of this ICR (or 

its OMB Control Number, if there is one) 

and then click on the ICR Reference 

Number to view detailed information 

about this ICR. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

additional information, contact Judith B. 

Herman at 202–418–0214 or via the 

Internet at Judith-B.Herman@fcc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

OMB Control Number: 3060–0816. 

Title: Local Telephone Competition 

and Broadband Reporting. 

Form No.: FCC Form 477. 

Type of Review: Revision of a 

currently approved collection. 

Respondents: Business or other forprofit; not-for-profit institutions, and 

state, local or tribal government. 

Number of Respondents: 1,610 

respondents; 3,220 responses. 

Estimated Time per Response: 337 

hours average burden. 

Frequency of Response: Semi-annual 

reporting requirement. 

Obligation to Respond: Mandatory, as 

required by the Commission’s rules 

implementing section 706 of the 

Telecommunications Act of 1996, 47 

U.S.C. 157 and the Communications Act 

of 1934, as amended; 47 U.S.C. 151–155, 

160, 161, 201–205, 215, 218–220, 251– 

271, 303(r), 332, 403, 502 and 503. 

Total Annual Burden: 1,085,140 

hours. 

Total Annual Cost: N/A. 

Privacy Act Impact Assessment: N/A. 

Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: 

Respondents may request confidential 

treatment for competitively sensitive 

information by checking a box located 

on the first page of FCC Form 477. If the 

Commission receives a request for 

release pursuant to the Freedom of 

Information Act (FOIA), the respondent 

is notified and afforded an opportunity 

to show why the data should not be 

released under 47 CFR 0.459(b) of the 

Commission’s rules. Additionally, the 

Commission only releases aggregated 

(non-company specific) information in 

its published reports. 

Needs and Uses: The Commission 

will submit this information collection 

(IC) to the OMB as a revision during this 

comment period to obtain the full threeyear clearance from them. 

On June 12, 2008, the Commission 

released two Orders in WC Docket No. 

07–38. They are a Report and Order and 

Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 

FCC 08–89 and an Order on 

Reconsideration, FCC 08–148. With 

these two Orders, the Commission 

revises the FCC Form 477 data 

collection to improve the Commission’s 

understanding of the extent of 

broadband deployment, facilitating the 

development of appropriate broadband 

policies. 

The Report and Order revises FCC 

Form 477 to require all broadband 

providers to report the number of 

broadband connections in service in 

individual Census Tracts. The Report 

and Order provides for additional 

methods to add to the data reported by 

FCC Form 477 filers, including a 

voluntary household self-reporting 

system, and a recommendation to the 

Census Bureau that the American 

Community Survey questionnaire be 

modified to gather information about 

broadband availability and subscription 

in households. The Report and Order 

adopts three additional changes to the 

FCC Form 477. First, it requires 

providers to report broadband service 

speed data in conjunction with 

subscriber counts according to new 

categories for download and upload 

speeds. These new speed tiers will 

better identify services that support 

advanced applications. Second, it 

amends reporting requirements for 

mobile wireless broadband providers to 

require them to report the number of 

subscribers whose data plans allow 

them to browse the Internet and access 

the lawful Internet content of their 

choice. Third, it requires providers of 

interconnected Voice over Internet 

Protocol (interconnected VoIP) service 

to report subscribership information on 

FCC Form 477. The Order on 

Reconsideration amends FCC Form 477 

to require filers to report the percentage 

of broadband connections that are 

residential at the Census Tract level. 

The information is necessary to 

evaluate the status of local telephone 

competition and the status of broadband 

services deployment. The information 

assists the Commission in preparing the 

report mandated by section 706 of the 

Telecommunications Act of 1996, and it 

is used by the Commission to evaluate 

the efficacy of Commission rules and 

policies adopted to implement the 

Telecommunications Act of 1996. 

Federal Communications Commission. 

Marlene H. Dortch, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. E8–22447 Filed 9–23–08; 8:45 am] 

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