Notice of Public Information Collection Submitted to OMB for Review and Approval

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

Notice of Public Information Collection Submitted to OMB for

Review and Approval

January 16, 1998.

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 that does not display a valid control number.

Comments should address: (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 estimates; (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 comments should be submitted on or before February 27,

1998. OMB Notification of Action is due on or before March 30, 1998. 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 comments to Judy Boley, Federal Communications,

Room 234, 1919 M St., NW., Washington, DC 20554 or via internet to

[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or copies

of the information collections contact Judy Boley at 202-418-0214 or

via internet at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On October 17, 1997, the Commission released

a Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,

FCC 97-376, which addresses rules and policies concerning cable inside

wiring. Among other things, this rulemaking amends the Commission's

regulations relating to the disposition of cable home wiring and

related issues including the sharing of molding, the demarcation point

for multiple dwelling unit buildings (``MDUs''), loop-through cable

wiring configurations, customer access to cable home wiring before

termination of service, and signal leakage.

OMB Approval Number: 3060-0692.

Title: Home Wiring Provisions.

Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.

Respondents: Business and other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 30,500 (20,500 multichannel video program

distributors and 10,000 multiple dwelling unit building owners).

Estimated Time Per Response: 5 minutes-20 hours.

Total Annual Burden to Respondents: 46,114 hours, calculated as

follows: This collection (3060-0692) accounts for all information

collection requirements that may come into play during the disposition

of cable home wiring in single dwelling units, as well as the

disposition of home run wiring and cable home wiring in MDUs. All

multichannel video programming distributors (``MVPDs''), both cable and

non-cable alike, are now subject to these disposition rules. Pursuant

to the Paperwork Reduction Act, when modifying only portions of an

information collection, agencies are still obligated to put forth the

entire collection for public comment.

This information collection now accounts for the information

collection requirement stated in 47 CFR 76.613,

[[Page 4262]]

where MVPDs causing harmful signal interference may be required by the

Commission's engineer in charge (EIC) to prepare and submit a report

regarding the cause(s) of the interference, corrective measures planned

or taken, and the efficacy of the remedial measures. Through the course

of this rulemaking proceeding, the Commission identified this

collection as not having previously been reported to OMB for approval.

We estimate that no more than 10 interference reports will be submitted

annually to the Commission's EIC, each having an average burden of 2

hours to prepare. (10 reports x 2 hours = 20 hours). 47 CFR 76.620

applies the Commission's signal leakage rules to all non-cable MVPDs.

Our rules require that each cable system perform an independent signal

leakage test annually, therefore, non-cable MVPDs will now be subject

to the same requirement. We recognize, however, that immediate

compliance with these requirements may present hardships to existing

non-cable MVPDs not previously subject to such rules. We will allow a

five-year transition period from the effective date of these rules to

afford non-cable MVPDs time to comply with our signal leakage rules

other than Sec. 76.613. The transition period will apply only to

systems of those non-cable MVPDs that have been substantially built as

of January 1, 1998. Considering non-cable MVPD systems that will be

built as of January 1, 1998, we estimate that 500 new entities will be

subject to signal leakage filing requirements, with an estimated burden

of 20 hours per entity. (500 systems x 20 hours = 10,000 hours). 47 CFR

76.802, Disposition of Cable Home Wiring, gives individual video

service subscribers in single unit dwellings and MDUs the opportunity

to purchase their cable home wiring at replacement cost upon voluntary

termination of service. In calculating hour burdens for notifying

individual subscribers of their purchase rights, we make the following

assumptions: There are approximately 20,000 MVPDs serving approximately

72 million subscribers in the United States. The average rate of churn

(subscriber termination) for all MVPDs is estimated to be 1% per month,

or 12% per year. MVPDs own the home wiring in 50% of the occurrences of

voluntary subscriber termination and subscribers or property owners

already have gained ownership of the wiring in the other 50% of

occurrences (e.g., where the MVPD has charged the subscriber for the

wiring upon installation, has treated the wiring as belonging to the

subscriber for tax purposes, or where state and/or local law treats

cable home wiring as a fixture). Where MVPDs own the wiring, we

estimate that they intend to actually remove the wiring 5% of the time,

thus initiating the disclosure requirement. We believe in most cases

that MVPDs will choose to abandon the home wiring because the cost and

effort required to remove the wiring generally outweigh its value. The

burden to disclose the information at the time of termination will vary

depending on the manner of disclosure, e.g., by telephone, customer

visit or registered mail. Virtually all voluntary service terminations

are done by telephone. The estimated average time consumed in the

process of the MVPD's disclosure and subscriber's election is 5 minutes

(.083 hours). Estimated annual number of occurrences is

72,000,000 x 12% x 50% x 5%=216,000. (216,000 x .083 hours=17,928

hours).

In addition, 47 CFR 76.802 states that if a subscriber in an MDU

declines to purchase the wiring, the MDU owner or alternative provider

(where permitted by the MDU owner) may purchase the home wiring where

reasonable advance notice has been provided to the incumbent. According

to the Statistical Abstracts of the United States, 1995 at 733 Table

No. 1224, over 28 million people resided in MDUs with three or more

units in 1993. We therefore estimate that there are currently 30

million MDU residents and that MDUs house an average of 50 residents,

and so we estimate that there are approximately 600,000 MDUs in the

United States. We estimate that 2,000 MDU owners will provide advance

notice to the incumbent that the MDU owner or alternative provider

(where permitted by the MDU owner) will purchase the home wiring where

a terminating individual subscriber declines. The estimated average

time for MDU owners to provide such notice is estimated to be 15

minutes (.25 hours). The estimated average time consumed in the process

of the MVPD's subsequent disclosure and the MDU owner or alternative

provider's election is 5 minutes (.083 hours). Estimated annual time

consumed is 2,000 notifications x .333 hours=666 hours. 47 CFR 76.802

also states that, to inform subscribers of per-foot replacement costs,

MVPDs may develop replacement cost schedules based on readily available

information; if the MVPD chooses to develop such schedules, it must

place them in a public file available for public inspection during

regular business hours. We estimate that 50% of MVPDs will develop such

cost schedules to place in their public files. Virtually all individual

subscribers terminate service via telephone, and few subscribers are

anticipated to review cost schedules on public file. The annual

recordkeeping burden for these cost schedules is estimated to be 0.5

hours per MVPD. (20,000 MVPDs x 50% x 0.5 hours=5,000 hours). 47 CFR

76.804 Disposition of Home Run Wiring. We estimate the burden for

notification and election requirements for building-by-building and

unit-by-unit disposition of home run wiring as described below. Note

that these requirements apply only when an MVPD owns the home run

wiring in an MDU and does not (or will not at the conclusion of the

notice period) have a legally enforceable right to remain on the

premises against the wishes of the entity that owns or controls the

common areas of the MDU or have a legally enforceable right to maintain

any particular home run wire dedicated to a particular unit on the

premises against the MDU owner's wishes. We use the term ``MDU owner''

to include whatever entity owns or controls the common areas of an

apartment building, condominium or cooperative. For building-by-

building disposition of home run wiring, the MDU owner gives the

incumbent service provider a minimum of 90 days' written notice that

its access to the entire building will be terminated. The incumbent

then has 30 days to elect what it will do with the home run wiring.

Where parties negotiate a price for the wiring and are unable to agree

on a price, the incumbent service provider must elect among

abandonment, removal of the wiring, or arbitration for a price

determination. Also, regarding cable home wiring, when the MDU owner

notifies the incumbent service provider that its access to the building

will be terminated, the incumbent provider must, within 30 days of the

initial notice and in accordance with our home wiring rules, (1) offer

to sell to the MDU owner any home wiring within the individual dwelling

units which the incumbent provider owns and intends to remove, and (2)

provide the MDU owner with the total per-foot replacement cost of such

home wiring. The MDU owner must then notify the incumbent provider as

to whether the MDU owner or an alternative provider intends to purchase

the home wiring not later than 30 days before the incumbent's access to

the building will be terminated. For unit-by-unit disposition of home

run wiring, an MDU owner must provide at least 60 days' written notice

to the incumbent MVPD that it intends to permit multiple

[[Page 4263]]

MVPDs to compete for the right to use the individual home run wires

dedicated to each unit. The incumbent service provider then has 30 days

to provide the MDU owner with a written election as to whether, for all

of the incumbent's home run wires dedicated to individual subscribers

who may later choose the alternative provider's service, it will remove

the wiring, abandon the wiring, or sell the wiring to the MDU owner. In

other words, the incumbent service provider will be required to make a

single election for how it will handle the disposition of individual

home run wires whenever a subscriber wishes to switch service

providers; that election will then be implemented each time an

individual subscriber switches service providers. Where parties

negotiate a price for the wiring and are unable to agree on a price,

the incumbent service provider must elect among abandonment, removal of

the wiring, or arbitration for a price determination. The MDU owner

also must provide reasonable advance notice to the incumbent provider

that it will purchase, or that it will allow an alternative provider to

purchase, the cable home wiring when a terminating individual

subscriber declines. If the alternative provider is permitted to

purchase the wiring, it will be required to make a similar election

during the initial 30-day notice period for each subscriber who

switches back from the alternative provider to the incumbent MVPD.

According to the Statistical Abstracts of the United States, 1995 at

733 Table No. 1224, over 28 million people resided in MDUs with three

or more units in 1993. We therefore estimate that there are currently

30 million MDU residents and that MDUs house an average of 50

residents, and so we estimate that there are approximately 600,000 MDUs

in the United States. In many instances, incumbent service providers

may no longer own the home run wiring or may continue to have a legally

enforceable right to remain on the premises. Also, MDU owners may

forego the notice and election processes for various other reasons,

e.g., they have no interest in purchasing the home run or cable home

wiring. We estimate that there will be approximately 12,500 notices and

12,500 elections made on an annual basis. The number of notices

accounts for the occasions when the MDU owner simultaneously notifies

the incumbent provider that: (1) It is invoking the home run wiring

disposition procedures, and (2) whether the MDU owner or alternative

provider intends to purchase the cable home wiring. It also accounts

for those occasions when the MDU owner makes a separate notification

regarding the purchase of cable home wiring. The number of elections

accounts for instances when the incumbent elects to sell the wiring but

the parties are unable to agree on a price, therefore necessitating a

second election. We assume all notifications and elections (except when

an individual subscriber is terminating service) will be in writing and

take an average burden of 30 minutes (0.5 hours) to prepare. (25,000

notifications and elections x 0.5 hours=12,500 hours).

Total Cost to Respondents: Total Annual Cost to Respondents:

$37,510, estimated as follows: Under the annual operation and

maintenance costs category, we estimate that stationery and postage

costs for interference reports submitted to the Commission pursuant to

Sec. 76.613 to be $1 per report. (10 reports x $1=$10). We estimate

stationery and postage costs for signal leakage filings to be $1 per

filing. (500 filings x $1=$500). We estimate that 50% of the 20,000

MVPDs will annually develop cost schedules. We estimate recordkeeping

expenses for these schedules to be $1 per MVPD.

(20,000 x 50% x $1=$10,000). We estimate stationery and postage costs

for the various disposition notifications and elections to be $1 per

occurrence. (27,000 advance notices and notifications and

elections x $1=$27,000). There are no estimated capital and start-up

costs.

Needs and Uses: The various notification and election requirements

in this collection (3060-0692) are set forth in order to promote

competition and consumer choice by minimizing any potential disruption

in service to a subscriber switching video providers.

Federal Communications Commission.

Magalie Roman Salas,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 98-2031 Filed 1-27-98; 8:45 am]

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