Public Notice Filing/Public Notice Response

JUSTIFICATION

NO MATERIAL/NON-SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE

OMB CONTROL NUMBERS 0660-0031/ 0572-0142

(Expiration Date: 1/31/2010)

Public Notice Filing/Public Notice Response

On July 9, 2009, the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Department of Commerce, issued a joint Notice of Funds Availability and Solicitation of Applications (NOFA) for the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), 74 Fed. Reg. 33104 (July 9, 2009). Among other things, the NOFA set forth the policies and procedures through which eligible entities may apply for loans and grants from RUS and grants from NTIA for Broadband Infrastructure projects to serve unserved and underserved areas as defined in the NOFA. The NOFA also provided that the agencies would post a public notice of the proposed funded service area of each Broadband Infrastructure application for a 30-day period. (74 Fed. Reg. 33122)

During the 30-day period, existing service providers would be able to submit information regarding their service offerings which is critical to the agencies’ ability to determine whether Broadband Infrastructure applications meet the programs' definitions of unserved or underserved for purposes of awards. A copy of the instrument (website screen shots/http://www.broadband usa.gov) for use by the respondents is in ROCIS. If the information submitted by an existing service provider demonstrates that parts of the applicant’s proposed funded service area is not unserved, both RUS and NTIA reserve the right to reclassify those parts of the service area and to consider the proposed area as underserved if it otherwise meets the criteria for underserved. If the information submitted by an existing service provider establishes that the applicant’s proposed funded service area is not underserved, both RUS and NTIA may reject the application. The Broadband Infrastructure application was approved by the Office of Management and Budget under Control Numbers 0660-0031 (NTIA) and 0572-0142 (RUS) with an expiration date of January 31, 2010.

This change request will result in the following increases:

Estimated of Burden: 1 hour and 30 minutes per response.

Estimated Number of Respondents: 300

Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: 10.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 4,500.

Respondents:  Existing broadband service providers.