[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: [email protected].
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]
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