1136_ss_072610

3060-1136

July 2010

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1. Justification:

The Commission submitted this information collection as an emergency request on March 31, 2010. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the emergency request on March 29, 2010. The Commission is now seeking the three year approval from the OMB. There are no changes to the reporting requirement. There is a change in the Commission’s estimated burden, see item 15 of this Supporting Statement.

1. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA), Pub. L. No. 111-5, 123 Stat 115 (2009), originally instructed the Commission to develop and submit to Congress a National Broadband Plan by February 17, 2010. The Commission sought a one-month extension to submit the National Broadband Plan to Congress no later than March 17, 2010. The Broadband Plan was released on March 16, 2010, and the beta version of the Spectrum Dashboard was also released on March 16, 2010.

As part of the Broadband Plan, the FCC has created the Spectrum Dashboard, a database of the frequency bands from 225 MHz – 3.7 GHz available for non-federal uses, including for broadband deployment across the nation. The Spectrum Dashboard also makes information transparent and readily available to interested stakeholders (e.g., service providers, manufacturers, innovators, investors, etc.) to better enable them to gain access to spectrum and to help them assist the Commission in our spectrum policy decisions. The increased accessibility to spectrum and licensing information made possible by the Spectrum Dashboard is particularly valuable at this time as multiple stakeholders search for ways to participate in the deployment of wireless broadband throughout the nation.

The purpose of this collection is to enable individuals to voluntarily provide feedback on their experience with the Spectrum Dashboard. This collection will provide the Commission with unique data on how stakeholders are using the Spectrum Dashboard and what improvements or enhancements they would like to see in future versions of the Spectrum Dashboard. Continual improvements to the Spectrum Dashboard will better inform the Commission’s spectrum management decisions. A copy of the customer feedback questions is uploaded in OMB’s ROCIS system.

As noted on the OMB Form 83i, this information collection does affect individuals or households, and the FCC has in place the requisite requirements to address these impacts, as required by the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, and OMB regulations.

Those who choose to provide feedback to the Spectrum Dashboard, including individuals and households, etc., are not required to furnish any personally identifiable information.

The FCC has a Privacy Policy that covers those who access the FCC’s webpages, at: http://www.fcc.gov/fccprivacypolicy.html. There is also a system of records, FCC/OMD-20, “Inter-office and Remote Access Internet E-mail Systems,” which was published in the Federal Register on April 5, 2006 (65 FR 17234, 17265) and a Privacy Impact Assessment at: http://www.fcc.gov/omd/privacyact/System_of_records/pia-email.pdf to cover the collection of IP addresses of those who access FCC webpages.

2. The Commission will use the Spectrum Dashboard Customer Feedback to obtain voluntary feedback from the wide range of stakeholders who will use the Spectrum Dashboard (e.g., individuals, licensees, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, industry analysts, regulators, and policy makers). In this regard, the Commission plans to keep the public engaged in an open and transparent dialogue regarding the utility of the software.

The Commission will use the information collected to help determine future improvements and enhancements to the Spectrum Dashboard.

3. The Spectrum Dashboard Customer Feedback will involve the electronic collection of information and will be accessible online where individuals can voluntarily provide their feedback.

4. To our knowledge, no effort to collect similar information exists.

5. In conformance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Commission is constantly making efforts to minimize the burden on all respondents, regardless of size. The Commission has limited the information requirements to those absolutely necessary. Note: A small business owner or employee may navigate to the Commission’s website and voluntarily enter information in the database.

6. No other Commission data collection efforts are directed at user-driven future improvements and enhancements to the Spectrum Dashboard. Absent this information collection, the Commission may lack sufficient information to make improvements and enhancements to the Spectrum Dashboard that best serve the needs of target stakeholders.

7. There are no special circumstances that would cause an information collection in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines in 5 C.F.R. § 1320.5(d)(2).

8. The Commission published a Notice in the Federal Register on April 14, 2010 (75 FR 19395), as required by 5 CFR § 1320.8(d). No comments were received; a copy of the Notice is referenced in this submission to the OMB..

9. There are no payments or gifts to the respondents.

10. No personally identifying information will be obtained as part of this information collection, except the collection of IP addresses when an individual or other entity accesses the FCC’s webpages.

As we note in Question 1, the FCC has a Privacy Policy that covers those who access the FCC’s webpages at: http://www.fcc.gov/fccprivacypolicy.html. There is also a system of records, FCC/OMD-20, “Inter-office and Remote Access Internet E-mail Systems” (65 FR 17234, 17265) and a Privacy Impact Assessment at: http://www.fcc.gov/omd/privacyact/System_of_records/pia-email.pdf to cover the collection of IP addresses of those who access FCC webpages.

11. This information collection does not address any private matters of a sensitive nature and the privacy issues are fully addressed, as noted in Questions 1 and 10.

12. Based on responses received to date, the Commission estimates that the total time burden for responding to the Spectrum Dashboard Customer Feedback form is estimated at 15 hours.

300 respondents x 0.05 hours per response = 15 total annual burden hours.

13. This information collection will impose no cost burden on respondents.

14. The Commission will administer the collection and use the services of CompuTech to develop the website to host the Customer Feedback form at cost of approximately $12,000. The Customer Feedback form was created by current Commission employees and contractors using funds received for the Broadband Plan effort.

15. There is a decreased adjustment to the hour burden. This is due to fewer respondents and is based on the number of responses the Commission has received to date. The Commission is reporting a 1,085 hour burden reduction.

16. The Commission may decide to publish summary results of this information collection on a periodic basis, (e.g., monthly). This publication may be through the Commission’s website or via Public Notice(s) or Press Release(s).

17. The Commission is seeking continued approval to not display the OMB expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection.

18. There are exceptions to item 19 of the OMB 83i.

2. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods:

This collection of information does not employ statistical methods.

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