Justification for Proposed Changes

Justification for Change Request

OMB Control No. 0660-0035

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) would like to make minor changes to the following reports in this collection - three BTOP Baseline Reports (for Infrastructure, Public Computer Centers (PCC) and Sustainable Broadband Adoption (SBA)); and two BTOP Narrative Reports (for Infrastructure and PCC/SBA).

The BTOP Narrative Reports, NTIA propose only to modify the instruction pages to make them current (change dates and instructions for second round of reporting).

With respect to the BTOP Baseline Reports, NTIA propose to make the changes summarized below to align them with the BTOP Performance Progress Reports that are received on a Quarterly and Annual basis.  This is required because NTIA intend to evaluate the grantees progress each quarter against the information provided in their Baseline Report.  Thus, we want to make sure that the categories of data collected are as consistent as possible between the Baseline Report and the Performance Progress Report.  NTIA received the first Quarterly Performance Progress Report in July and learned what needed to be changed in the baseline reports.  Nearly all the changes proposed are designed to make the categories of collected data, the instructions, and definitions in the Baseline Report the same as in the Performance Progress Reports. To the Infrastructure Baseline Report only, we would also like to add a brief chart that requests the grantees to set forth the timeline (called “Project Plan”) for their projects.  The infrastructure grantees submitted this same type of information, in the same chart, in their application so it should not be burdensome for the grantees to update the information in the chart provided. Below is a summary of the changes we would like to make in each Baseline Report:

Baseline Infrastructure Report: Add Project Plan as a separate chart; update the instructions on the first page; conform wording of Annual Indicators to Performance Progress Report (PPR) phrasing; conform categories in Quarterly indicators to categories in PPR Quarterly Indicators by adding “Existing network miles upgraded” and “Existing network miles leased”; conform wording in “Projected Number of Subscribers” chart; conform all instructions and definitions; and add “Matching fund expenditures” to capture the same information that is captured in the PPR.

Baseline PCC Report: Update the instructions on the first page; conform instructions and definitions to PPR; delete “Average Hours of Training Offered Per Week” as this category is not included in PPR; subdivide “Total hours of operation per week” to “Total hours of operation per 120 hour business week” and “Total hours of operation per 48 hour weekend.” Include two

quarterly indicators to match the quarterly indicators in the PPR: “Number of training participants” and “Number of training hours;” and add “Matching fund expenditures” to capture the same information that is captured in the PPR.

Baseline SBA Report: Update the instructions on the first page; conform instructions and definitions to PPR; in Quarterly Indicators – delete “Individuals reached with awareness campaigns” and “Size of target audience.” Add an Annual Indicator called “Number of participants completing training” (all of these changes are designed to conform with PPR); add question re: current broadband adoption level in project area so that we can compare adoption level data that is collected in the SBA Annual Performance Progress Report; and add “Matching fund expenditures” to capture the same information that is captured in the PPR.