Notice of Public Information Collection(s) Being Reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission, Comments Requested

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

Notice of Public Information Collection(s) Being Reviewed by the

Federal Communications Commission, Comments Requested

October 4, 1999.

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, Pub. L. 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 (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 comments should be submitted on or before December 13,

1999. 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 Les Smith, Federal Communications

Commissions, 445 12th Street, S.W., Room 1-A804, Washington, DC 20554

or via the Internet to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or copies

of the information collections contact Les Smith at (202) 418-0217 or

via the Internet at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

OMB Control Number: 3060-0076.

Title: Annual Employment Report for Common Carriers.

Form Number: FCC Form 395.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 4000 respondents.

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Estimated Time Per Response: 1 hour per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 4000 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: Annually, Recordkeeping.

Needs and Uses: The Annual Employment Report is submitted by

certain common carrier licensees and permittees. The data is intended

to assess compliance with equal employment opportunity requirements.

Data is used by the FCC, Congress, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,

EEOC, NTIA and public interest groups.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0715.

Title: Implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996:

Telecommunications Carriers' Use of Customer Proprietary Network

Information and Other Customer Proprietary Network.

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Revision.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 6832 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 86.2 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 189,656 hours for modified collections.

588,917 hours for all collections under this control number.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $229,520.

Frequency of Response: On occasion, Recordkeeping, Third Party

Disclosure.

Needs and Uses: On February 26, 1998, the Commission released the

CPNI Order, 63 FR 20326, April 24, 1998, adopting rules implementing

the new statutory framework governing carrier use and disclosure of

customer proprietary network information (CPNI) created by section 222

of the Communications Act. CPNI includes, among other things, to whom,

where, and when a customer places a call, as well as the types of

service offerings to which the customer subscribes and the extent the

service is used. The Commission issued an Order on Reconsideration

which modified the CPNI Order, in part, to preserve the consumer

protections mandated by Congress while more narrowly tailoring our

rules, where necessary, to enable telecommunications carriers to comply

with the law in a more flexible and less costly manner. The Order on

Reconsideration reduces by half the burden of compliance with the

customer approval requirement. If carriers choose to use CPNI to market

telecommunications service offerings outside the customer's existing

service, they must obtain customer approval. By expanding the concept

of the total service approach to include CPE and information services,

the rules were modified to allow carriers to use CPNI without customer

approval in most instances to market CPE and information services.

Where carriers are required to obtain customer approval, they may still

do so through written, oral, or electronic means. The Order on

Reconsideration removes the audit mechanism entirely but requires that

carriers maintain records of sales and marketing campaigns. The Order

on Reconsideration reduces by half the time required to comply with the

recordkeeping requirement by limiting application to sales and

marketing campaigns. Carriers using CPNI for sales and marketing

campaigns must record the date and purpose of the campaign, and what

products and services were offered to customers. Carriers are required

to maintain these records for a period of at least one year. All the

collections will be used to ensure that telecommunications carriers

comply with the CPNI requirements and to implement section 222 of the

statute.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0721.

Title: One-Time Report of Local Exchange Companies of Cost

Accounting Studies.

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 400 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 50 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 20,000 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: On occasion.

Needs and Uses: Local exchange companies must submit, on a one-time

basis, cost accounting studies to identify the direct cost of central

office coin services. The requirement would be used to ensure that LECs

comply with their obligations under the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0719.

Title: Quarterly Report of IntraLATA Carriers Listing Payphone

Automatic Number Identifications (ANIs).

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 400 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 3.5 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 5600 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: Quarterly.

Needs and Uses: Pursuant to the mandate in Section 276(b)(1)(A) to

``establish a per call compensation plan to ensure that all payphone

service providers are fairly compensated for each and every completed

intrastate and interstate call'', 47 USC Section 276(b)(1)(A),

intraLATA carriers are required to provide to interexchange carriers a

quarterly report listing payphone ANIs. The report allows IXCs to

determine which dial-around calls are made from payphones. The data,

which must be maintained for at least 18 months after the close of a

compensation period, will facilitate verification of disputed ANIs. The

requirement is used to ensure that intraLATA carriers, and the IXCs

comply with their obligations under the 1996 Act.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0724.

Title: Annual Report of Interexchange Carriers Listing the

Compensation Amount Paid to Payphone Providers and the Number of

Payees.

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 275 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 2 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 550 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: Annually, Recordkeeping.

Needs and Uses: Interexchange carriers responsible for paying per-

call compensation must submit annual reports to the Common Carrier

Bureau listing the amount of compensation paid to payphone providers

and the number of payees. IXCs will also be required to initiate an

annual audit of their per-call tracking functions. This would help

ensure that all interexchange carriers are paying their respective

compensation obligations.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0726.

Title: Quarterly Report of Interexchange Carriers Listing the

Number of Dial-Around Calls for Which Compensation is Being Paid to

Payphone Owners.

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 275 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 30 minutes per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 550 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

[[Page 55285]]

Frequency of Response: Quarterly.

Needs and Uses: Interexchange carriers responsible for paying per-

call compensation to payphone providers must submit a quarterly list of

dial-around calls to those payphone providers. The payphone providers

need the list to calculate the compensation to be paid by the

interexchange carriers.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0729.

Title: Bell Operating Company Provision of Out-of-Region,

Interstate, Interexchange Services, Report and Order, CC Docket No. 96-

21, (Affiliated Company Recordkeeping Requirement).

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 7 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 6056 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 42,394 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: Recordkeeping.

Needs and Uses: In CC Docket No. 96-21, the Commission removed

dominant regulation for BOCs that provide out-of-region, interstate,

interexchange services through an affiliate that complies with certain

safeguards, in order to facilitate the efficient and rapid provision of

out-of-region, domestic, interstate, interexchange services by the

BOCs, as contemplated by the 1996 Act, while still protecting

ratepayers and competition in the interexchange market. These

safeguards requires, among other things, that the affiliate maintain

separate books of account from the LEC. The recordkeeping requirement

is to ensure that BOCs providing interexchange service through a

separate affiliate are in compliance with the Communications Act and

Commission policies and rules regarding BOC provision of out-of-region

interexchange services.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0748.

Title: Disclosure Requirements for Information Services Provided

Through Toll-Free Numbers, 47 CFR Section 64.1504.

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 3750 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 2.8 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 10,500 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: Third Party Disclosure.

Needs and Uses: 47 CFR Section 64.1504 imposes disclosure

requirements on entities that use toll-free numbers to provide

information services. The requirements are intended to ensure that

callers to toll-free numbers are: (1) Informed if charges will be

levied and (2) receive the information necessary to make an informed

decision whether to purchase an information service.

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.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities; States.

Number of Respondents: 4542 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 30 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 136,677 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: Third Party Disclosures.

Needs and Uses: The rules adopted in CC Docket No. 96-128: (1)

Establish a plan to ensure fair competition for each and every

completed intrastate and interstate call using a payphone; (2)

discontinue intrastate and interstate carrier access charge payphone

service elements and payments and intrastate and interstate payphone

subsidies from basic exchange services; (3) prescribe nonstructural

safeguards for BOC payphones; (4) permit the BOCs to negotiate with the

payphone location provider about a payphone's presubscribed interLATA

carrier; (5) permit all payphone providers to negotiate with the

location provider about a payphone's presubscribed interLATA carrier;

and (6) adopt guidelines for use by the state in establishing public

interest payphones to be located where there would otherwise not be a

payphone. The requirements contained in the Order are: State must

review their regulations concerning adequacy of local coin rate

disclosure and review them where necessary. States must review their

regulations concerning market entry or exit requirements and remove

them where necessary to ensure consistency with the Commission's

regulations. States must comply with the Commission's market-rate local

coin call requirement, except where they show proof of market failure.

Such a showing could consist of, for example, detailed summary of the

record of a state proceeding that examines the costs of providing

payphone service within that state and the reasons why the public

interest is served by having the state set rates within that market.

Each state must review whether it has adequately provided for public

interest payphones in a manner consistent with the Order. All payphones

are required to transmit specific payphone coding digits as a part of

their automatic number identification which will assist in identifying

them to compensation payors. Carriers must provide tracking of all

compensable calls received from payphones to ensure that each and every

completed call from a payphone is receiving compensation. Carriers are

required to initiate an annual verification of their per call tracking

functions for a period of two years to ensure that they are tracking

all of the calls for which they are obligated to pay compensation. LECs

must provide verification of disputed ANIs on request and in a timely

manner. LECs are required to notify the carrier-payors of each

payphone's disconnection on a basis that is as timely as possible. LECs

are required to affirmatively state on their bills to PSPs that the

bills are for payphone service to facilitate payment of compensation

and to avoid disputes. Incumbent LECs must file revised tariffs for

central office coin transmission services and CCL charges to ensure

that LEC services are priced reasonably and to not include subsidies.

Incumbent LECs and AT&T must either reclassify their payphone assets as

nonregulated or transfer them to a separate affiliate engaged in

nonregulated activities. If a payphone provider does not appear on the

LEC-provided customer-owned, coin-operated telephone lists, it must

provide alternative verification information to the IXC paying

compensation. Payphone providers are required to post the local coin

call rate within the informational placard on each payphone. LECs must

supply to carrier-payors, on demand, a list of emergency numbers so

that carrier-payors will know that they do not have to compensate

payphone providers for emergency calls. All the requirements are used

to ensure that interexchange carriers, payphone service providers,

LECs, and the states, comply with their obligations under the

Telecommunications Act of 1996.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0742.

Title: Telephone Number Portability (47 CFR Part 52, Subpart C

Sections 52.21-52.31).

Form Number: N/A.

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Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities; States.

Number of Respondents: 237 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 4.75 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 1,125 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: On occasion.

Needs and Uses: In the Memorandum Opinion and Order on

Reconsideration issued in CC Docket No. 95-116, released March 11,

1997, the Commission affirmed and clarified rules established in its

First Report and Order in the proceeding. The proceeding implemented

section 251(b)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, which

requires all LECs to offer number portability in accordance with

requirements prescribed by the Commission. The proceedings established

the following collections. Carriers participating in a field test of

number portability in the Chicago, Illinois areas were required to

jointly file with the Commission a report of their findings with 30

days after completion of the test. Sections 52.23(b) and 52.31 require

that long-term number portability be provided by LECs and CMRS

providers inside the 100 largest MSAs in switches for which another

carrier has made a specific request for number portability. A carrier

must make its specific requests for deployment of number portability in

particular switches at least in months before the deadline for

completion of number portability in that MSA. After carriers have

submitted requests for number portability, a wireline carrier or CMRS

provider must make readily available upon request a list of its

switches for which portability has been requested, and those for which

portability has not been requested. Section 52.25 requires state

regulatory commissions to file with the Commission a notification if

they opt to develop a state-specific database for the provision of

number portability in lieu of participating in a regional database

system. Section 52.25 permits carriers to challenge decisions made by

states to develop a state-specific number portability database in lieu

of participating in the regional databases by filing a petition with

the Commission. Sections 52.23 and 52.31 require carriers that are

unable to meet the deadlines for implementing a long-term number

portability solution to file with the Commission a petition to extend

the time by which implementation in its network will be completed. The

requirements were imposed to implement section 251 of the

Telecommunications Act of 1996.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0165.

Title: Part 41, Franks, Section 41.31--Records to be Maintained and

Reports to be Filed.

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 68 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 6 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 408 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: Recordkeeping.

Needs and Uses: Section 210 of the Communications Act of 1934, as

amended, requires that common carriers subject to the Act maintain

records to reflect the name, address, etc., of persons holding

telephone or telegraph franks, so as to enable the Commission and/or

carriers to compile, if needed, reports in this area. Section 41.31 of

the Commission's rules implements Section 210. This information helps

to ensure that franks are being addressed fairly.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0147.

Title: Extension of Unsecured Credit for Interstate and Foreign--

Section 64.804.

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 13 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 8 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 104 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: Annually.

Needs and Uses: Pursuant to Section 64.804 of the Commission's

rules, communications common carriers with operating revenues exceeding

$1 million who extend unsecured credit to a candidate or person on

behalf of such candidates for Federal office must file with the FCC a

report including due and outstanding balances. The information is used

for monitoring purposes.

OMB Control Number: 3060-0749.

Title: Disclosure and Dissemination of Pay-Per Call Information, 47

CFR 64.1509.

Form Number: N/A.

Type of Review: Extension.

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents: 25 respondents.

Estimated Time Per Response: 410 hours per response (avg.).

Total Annual Burden: 10,250 hours.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden: $0.

Frequency of Response: Third party disclosure.

Needs and Uses: Section 64.1509 incorporates in the Commission's

rules the requirements of Sections 228(c)(2) and 228(d)(2)-(3) of the

Communications Act. Under these sections, common carriers that assign

telephone numbers to pay-per-call services must disclose to all

interested parties, upon request a list of all assigned pay-per-call

numbers. For each assigned number, carriers must also make available:

(1) A description of the pay-per-call service; (2) the total cost per

minute or other fees associated with the service; and (3) the service

provider's name, business address, and telephone number. In addition,

carriers handling pay-per-call services must establish a toll-free

number that consumer may call to receive information about pay-per-call

services. Carriers are required to provide statements of pay-per-call

rights and responsibilities to new telephone subscribers at the time

service is established and, although not required by statute, to all

subscribers annually. The disclosure requirements are intended to

ensure that consumers are able to obtain information that will enable

them to make informed choices about their use of pay-per-call services.

Federal Communications Commission.

Magalie Roman Salas,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 99-26519 Filed 10-8-99; 8:45 am]

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