[Federal Register: September 5, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 171)]
[Notices]
[Page 50964-50965]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr05se07-45]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Public Information Collection Requirement Submitted to OMB for
Emergency Review and Approval
August 30, 2007.
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 (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 September 12, 2007. 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 contacts
listed below as soon as possible.
ADDRESSES: Direct all PRA comments to Nicholas A. Fraser, Office of
Management and Budget, via e-mail to nfraser@omb.eop.gov or via fax at
202-395-5167, and to the Federal Communications Commission via e-mail
to PRA@fcc.gov or by U.S. mail to Jerry Cowden, Federal Communications
Commission, Room 1-B135, 445 12th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20554.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information contact
Jerry Cowden via e-mail at PRA@fcc.gov or at 202-418-0447. If you would
like to obtain or view a copy of this information collection you may do
so by visiting the FCC PRA Web page at: http://www.fcc.gov/omd/pra.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Commission is requesting emergency OMB
processing of this information collection and has requested OMB
approval by September 19, 2007.
OMB Control Number: None.
Title: Information collection for Emergency Communications Back-Up
System Report to Congress.
Form No.: Not applicable.
Type of Review: New collection.
Respondents: Businesses or other for-profit; not-for-profit
institutions; and state, local or tribal governments.
Number of Respondents: 45 respondents; 45 responses.
Estimated Time per Response: 40 hours.
Frequency of Response: One-time reporting.
Obligation to Respond: Voluntary.
Total Annual Burden: 1,800 hours.
Total Annual Cost: $33,000. This is based on an estimate that half
the respondents (22) will fly a representative (or representatives) the
equivalent of a coast-to-coast round trip to Washington, DC and will
have lodging for one night. The average cost of a single round trip
fare and one night lodging is estimated to be $1500.
Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: The Commission will work with
respondents to ensure that their concerns regarding the confidentiality
of any proprietary or business-sensitive information are resolved in a
manner consistent with the Commission's rules.
Privacy Act Impact Assessment: This information collection does not
affect individuals or households, and therefore a privacy impact
assessment is not required.
Needs and Uses: The information collection sought will enable the
Commission to fulfill its obligation under the Implementing
Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 (Act), Public Law
110-53. The purpose of the Act is to ``provide for the implementation
of the recommendations of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
Upon the United States.'' Towards this end, the Act mandates that the
Commission ``shall conduct a vulnerability assessment of the Nation's
critical communications and information systems infrastructure and
shall evaluate the technical feasibility of creating a back-up
emergency communications system that complements existing
communications resources and takes into account next generation and
advanced communications technologies.'' The Commission must submit a
report to Congress that details the findings of this evaluation not
later than 180 days after the date of enactment of the Act (since the
Act was enacted on August 3, 2007, the report will be due to Congress
on January 30, 2008).
To complete this report, the Commission seeks to collect
information primarily through face-to-face meetings, phone calls
(including conference calls), and e-mail correspondence with commercial
service and network operators (i.e., private satellite, wireline, and
wireless operators, circuit and packet network operators), users (or
owners) of emergency communication systems and networks, (e.g.,
emergency responders including first responders, 9-1-1 system and
dispatch operators, federal, state and local emergency agencies), and
their associations, manufacturers of public safety equipment and
emergency communications networks and systems, operators of networks
for emergency responders, and standards organizations and industry
groups working on public safety equipment and emergency communications
networks and systems and standards. Information will be sought
concerning emergency communications networks, including user devices,
network equipment, operations processes and operations systems, and
concerning the feasibility of commercial service providers to support
the needs of public safety, including: (1) Technical capabilities and
characteristics of equipment (e.g., analog/digital, power, range,
access protocol, broadband/wideband/narrowband, etc.), (2) technical
capabilities and characteristics of commercial services to support the
needs of public safety, (3) cost and deployment of commercial services
for
[[Page 50965]]
use by public safety, (4) cost of user devices and network equipment of
emergency communications networks (e.g., unit cost, maintenance/upgrade
cost, etc.), and the cost of operations and operations systems
(including feature upgrades) for emergency communications networks and
services, (5) deployment of user devices, network equipment, and
operations processes and equipment of emergency communications systems
(e.g., type of systems deployed or to be deployed), number of units
deployed/sold, etc.), (6) standardization of user devices, network
equipment, and operations interfaces of emergency communications
systems (e.g., standard/proprietary, standard activities, etc.), (7)
interoperability (i.e., the ability of communications among different
systems, devices and groups) of user groups, user devices, network
equipment, and operations processes and equipment of emergency
communications systems (e.g., interoperability among first responders
within a jurisdiction, among jurisdictions using the same and different
network technologies), (8) spectrum usage of user devices and network
equipment of emergency communications systems (e.g., frequencies of
operation, shared/dedicated spectrum, etc.), (9) applications and
application requirements for end users and the technical requirements
for such applications including bandwidth needs, (10) operations
systems features and operations processes supporting emergency network
operation during an emergency, (11) service capabilities (e.g., voice,
data, video, mobile to mobile communications, etc.), (12) evolutionary
trend of user devices, network equipment, and operations of emergency
communications systems (e.g., next generation, migration path, etc.),
(13) backhaul connectivity of network equipment and facilities (e.g.,
commercial/private, wired/wireless, capacity, etc.), (14) description
of network technology and architecture (e.g., whether the network
design accommodates access to emergency responders from other
jurisdictions, capability of architecture to support resiliency in
disaster situations, etc.), (15) operations budget for the network,
(16) responsibilities of the organizations operating the networks,
including service provisioning, traffic management and network
maintenance, especially during an emergency, (17) plans, if any, for
restoring emergency communication services or reverting to backup
networks in the event that a primary emergency communications network
is damaged or destroyed, (18) ability of existing emergency
communications networks to back up or complement the communication
resources of other emergency communications networks, (19) ability to
rapidly increase emergency communication network capacity in the event
that the capacity limits of the network are exceeded in a major
disaster, (20) a description of the role of ``core services'' such as
authentication and agency locator services, whether and how they are
implemented in existing and planned networks, and their costs, (21) a
description of the processes and systems used or planned to connect
emergency responders to a back-up network in an emergency, and (22)
plans to restore emergency communications services if the network over
which they are provided is damaged, destroyed, or sufficiently
congested to be impaired or unusable (e.g., changes in operations
staffing in emergency conditions, dynamic bandwidth allocation to users
or networks, back-up communications for other emergency communications
services or networks), other administrative or planning issues
associated with the deployment and maintenance of such backup national
emergency communications capabilities.
Federal Communications Commission.
William F. Caton,
Deputy Secretary.
[FR Doc. E7-17507 Filed 9-4-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P