3060-0757
March 2007
A. Justification
The Commission seeks extension of this information collection in order to obtain the full three year clearance from the Office of Management and Budget.
1. Since enactment of § 6002 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, the Commission has conducted a series of spectrum auctions. Approximately 3,700 bidders have participated in these auctions, including individuals, businesses (both large and small) and other entities. By seeking input from auction participants, through use of the FCC Auctions Customer Survey, the Commission expects to gather information to evaluate the competitive bidding methodologies and other operational processes used to date and to improve these techniques for use in future auctions.
Section 309(j) gives the Commission express authority to employ competitive bidding procedures to choose among mutually exclusive applications for initial licenses. In order to improve our auctions participation, the commission developed a FCC Auctions Customer survey to obtain the view of auction participants and future auction participants.
This information collection contains personally identifiable information on individuals (PII).
The FCC maintains a system of records notice (SORN), FCC/WTB-7, “Remedy Action Request System (RARS)”, that covers the collection, purpose(s), storage, safeguards, and disposal of the PII that individual bidders maintain under the FCC Auctions Customer Survey.
The FCC published this SORN most recently on April 5, 2006 (71 FR 17234, 17269).
Going forward, if the FCC makes substantive change to the FCC Auctions Customer Survey, the Commission will conduct a full Privacy Impact Assessment of the SORN covered by FCC/WTB- 7, update this SORN, publish a Notice in the Federal Register, and post these two documents on the FCC webpage, as required by OMB Memorandum, M-03-22 (September 22, 2003).
Statutory authority for this collection of information is contained in 47 U.S.C. §§ 154(i), 309(j)(3) and 309(j)(12), as amended.
2. The FCC Auctions Customer Survey is an important step in meeting these Congressional requirements. By seeking input from auction participants, the Commission expects to gather information to evaluate the effectiveness of competitive bidding methodologies used to date, and to improve the competitive bidding methodologies used in future auctions. Finally, the FCC Auctions Customer Survey will provide useful feedback in determining the extent to which the Commission is meeting its goal of providing participants in competitive bidding with the highest level of customer satisfaction through information dissemination and the responsiveness of the Commission staff to customer inquiries.
3. The information requested in the FCC Auctions Customer Survey is voluntary. The customer survey will be conducted by mail and will include all participants in completed auctions. Respondents may return the survey information by mail, fax, telephone, etc. The survey will be conducted periodically by contracted staff and will occur at the end of an auction. Contracted staff will also record responses received on the FCC Auctions Customer Survey.
In the alternative, customer surveys may be conducted by posting the survey either on the
Commission’s electronic computer auction system or on the Internet. Responses will be received electronically, either via the Commission’s electronic computer auction system or via the Internet. Those bidders who do not participate in the Commission’s auctions by computer will be polled by mail. Over the past three years, no survey responses were received electronically.
The decision of which alternative to employ in each information collection will be based on an analysis of maximizing convenience and minimizing burden for participants. Information technology will be used to the maximum extent consistent with this standard.
4. The Commission currently does not impose a similar information collection on respondents. There is likewise no similar data available.
5. In conformance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Commission is making an effort to minimize the burden on all respondents regardless of size. The Commission has limited the information requirement to that which is absolutely necessary to evaluate the competitive bidding methodologies and other operational processes used and to improve these techniques for use in future auctions.
6. Participation in the survey is purely voluntary, therefore, the respondents will determine whether they respond or not. Based upon the knowledge and experience of the staff, the Commission anticipates that most, if not all, participants in the auctions will participate in the survey.
7. This collection of information is consistent with the guidelines in 5 C.F.R. Section 1320.6.
8. The Commission published a 60 day notice on November 22, 2006 (71 FR 67580), in compliance with 5 CFR Section 1320.8(d). No comments were received. A copy of the notice is included in this submission to OMB.
9. Respondents will not receive any payments.
10. Any individuals, corporations or businesses contacted in the customer survey during the course of an ongoing auction have agreed, by virtue of their participation in the auction, to identify themselves in the auction and have waived their right to confidentiality under the Privacy Act. Individuals, corporations and other businesses will not be identified by name on the FCC Auctions Customer Survey or in any data compilation produced thereby.
11. This form does not address any private matters of a sensitive nature.
12. Respondent Burden:
Respondents may complete this information collection by responding to a telephone survey or completing the enclosed survey. Respondents may return the survey information by mail, fax, telephone, etc.
The Commission estimates that approximately 1000 auction participants will respond to this survey x .25 hrs = 250 hrs.
Total Annual Burden = 250 hours
Cost to Respondent: There are no costs to the respondent.
14. Cost to the Federal Government: There are no costs to the Federal Government. The Commission anticipates using current contract employees to conduct the mail survey during idle time.
15. The Commission is adjusting the burden hour estimates due to fewer respondents and thus the burden hour total. The Commission is now reporting 1,000 respondents with a total annual burden of 250 hours.
16. The Commission anticipates the results of the study will be prepared quickly after the close of the study. The results will be tabulated arithmetically in straight narrative form. Percentage figures will be tabulated in connection with each question. The brevity of the time for responses is necessary in order to rapidly implement any changes mandated by the results of the study for future auctions. As noted above, the Commission does not plan to do a statistical sample, but instead plans to survey all participants in future auctions.
17. The Commission is requesting approval to not display the OMB expiration date. By requesting approval to not display the OMB expiration date, this will alleviate the need to update surveys with a current expiration date, update the electronic versions on the Internet and the Commission’s electronic computer auction system. The Commission will use an edition date in lieu of an OMB expiration date. Finally, the Commission publishes a list of all OMB-approved information collections by title, OMB expiration date and OMB Control Number in 47 CFR 0.408.
18. The exception to the certification statement is when we initiated the 60-day notice the number of respondents and burden hours were inaccurate. The Commission has adjusted the respondent estimate to 1,000 and the burden hours to 250.
B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods:
No statistical methods were employed.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | I J |
| Author | mhall |
| File Modified | 2007-03-08 |
| File Created | 2007-03-08 |