The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorized the Federal Communications Commission to create the national Broadband Plan that seeks to ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal. Consistent with this effort, and pursuant to the requirements under the Broadband Data Improvement Act of 2008, the FCC seeks to conduct surveys of residential consumers of broadband Internet to determine the state of brodband Internet access, use, service speed and price in order to make recommendations to congress as part of the National Broadband Plan. The plan is due to congress by February 17, 2010.
In order to meet the congressional deadline of February 17, 2010, the FCC must prepare a national broadband plan to collect information on the types of technology used to provide broadband to consumers, the price of such services, actual data transmission speeds and the reasons for non-adoption of broadband services. Because of the short time period in which the Commission must gather the data and prepare a plan to congress, the Commission must request emergency processing to meet this congressional deadline.
PL: Pub.L. 110 - 385 103 Name of Law: Broadband Data Improvement Act of 2008
PL: Pub.L. 111 - 5 123 Name of Law: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
The Commission is submitting a non material change to the supporting statement, Part A, because the Commission wishes to contact non-adopters of broadband service. The FCC plans to conduct workshops and conduct face-to-face interviews with 100 additional respondents to find out why they chose not to adopt a broadband service. The findings will be incorporated into part of a national broadband plan that must be be submitted to congress by February 17, 2010.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.