1127_ss_final 2016

First Responder Information in the 3060-1127

Universal Licensing System (ULS) April 2016

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

The Commission is seeking a three-year extension of the collection from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). There are no changes to the reporting requirement(s) and there is no change to the Commission’s burden estimates.

A. Justification:

1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary. Identify any legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection.

The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (Bureau) enhanced the existing Universal Licensing System (ULS) to collect operational point of contact information from public safety licensees and non-public safety licensees designated as emergency first responders responsible for coordinating with state, county and local authorities during times of emergency. The process of procuring and maintaining spectrum using the ULS remains intact and requires no additional training for licensees to participate in this voluntary collection.¹ This enhancement to ULS to collect emergency point of contact information enables Commission staff to more effectively provide immediate assistance and outreach to licensees during times of emergency. Using this information, the Bureau is able to coordinate among licensees in given geographic areas to make more wireless radio service available to emergency first responders and emergency operations.

This information collection does not affect individuals or households; thus, there are no impacts under the Privacy Act.

Statutory authority for this collection of information is contained in Sections 4(i) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. § 154(i), and Section 0.191 of the Commission’s rules, 47 CFR § 0.191.

2. Indicate how, by whom and for what purpose the information is to be used. Except for a new collection, indicate the actual use the agency has made of the information received from the current collection.

Public safety licensees and non-public safety licensees designated as emergency first responders operating pursuant to Part 90 of the Commission’s rules should identify the following information regarding the operational point of contact for the Licensee directly responsible for coordinating with the state, county, and/or local emergency authorities:

(a) Name and Title,

(b) Office telephone number,

(c) Mobile telephone number, and

(d) E-mail address

The Bureau issued a Public Notice, DA-09-2043, with step-by-step instructions on how to use the enhanced features made available to licensees to provide this information.²

2. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical or other technological techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submissions of responses, and the basis for the decision for adopting this means of collection. Also describe any consideration of using information technology to reduce burden.

Licensees are expected to use the fully-electronic ULS to file the information via the Internet.

2. Describe efforts to identify duplication. Show specifically why any similar information already available cannot be used or modified for use for the purposes described in item 2 above.

There is no similar or duplicative reporting requirement. Emergency contact information pursuant to 47 CFR § 4(f), Disruptions to Communications- Wireless service providers, must be reported, but only after an outage “of significant degradation” occurs.³ If there is no outage, no information needs to be reported. Emergency contact information collected via the ULS is not mandatory and can be reported at any time, with or without an emergency or an outage. In addition to the original outage notification report, licensees must file initial and final outage reports containing much technical information usually produced by engineering staff for use by the Commission in establishing policies for network reliability.⁴ This information is currently being collected under OMB Control Number 3060-1003.

The ULS information is used by Commission Public Safety staff to bring licensees together and manage more efficiently the existing spectrum, which does not require significant engineering analysis. Thus, the people responding to the mandatory collections under Part 4 of the Commission’s rules, Disruptions to Communications, are likely not the same people providing the contact information pursuant to the non-mandatory ULS collection. The Part 4 and ULS collections are therefore different in purpose and source.

2. If the collection of information impacts small businesses or other small entities, describe any methods used to minimize the burden.

The collection utilizes existing, electronic forms already provided by entities to procure the licenses initially, so providing the additional information involves an electronic form population process already familiar to small businesses and entities. The result is a simple and expeditious experience for all entities, including small businesses. In addition, providing the information described by this collection request is voluntary for all licensees.

2. Describe the consequences to Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing the burden.

The Commission needs this information in order to coordinate effective, efficient and immediate use of spectrum assets among first responders on location during an emergency to help save the loss of life and property. Entities need only to provide the contact information described by this collection request once and update it if and when it changes, resulting in a collection burden that is de minimus.

2. Explain any special circumstances that would cause an information collected in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR § 1320.5(d)(2).

There are no special circumstances that would cause an information collected in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR § 1320.5(d)(2).

2. If applicable, provide a copy and identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the agency’s notice, required by 5 CFR § 1320.5(d), soliciting comments on the information prior to submission to OMB. Summarize public comments received in response to that notice and describe actions taken by the agency in response to those comments. Describe efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format (if any), and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported.

The Commission published a 60 day notice as required by 5 CFR 1320.8(d) on January 6, 2016 (81 FR 485). No comments were received as a result of the notice.

2. Explain any decision to provide any payment or gift to respondents, other than enumeration of contractors or grantees.

There are no payments or gifts to respondents.

2. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for the assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.

To protect the identities and locations of key first responder communications personnel, the Commission will treat emergency contact information submitted into ULS pursuant to the Public Notice, DA-09-243, as confidential and will not make such information publicly available.⁵ The contact information submitted into ULS by public safety licensees and non-public safety licensees designated as emergency first responders will be available only to Commission staff. Interested licensees should file their operational point of contact information in ULS in the form of a confidential pleading.

Also, to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the emergency contact information submitted pursuant to this collection, the Commission will ensure that the sensitive information is encrypted and properly stored.

2. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature.

This information collection does not address any private matters of a sensitive nature.

2. Burden Hours on the Respondent: Provide estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information. The statement should: indicate the number of respondents, frequency of responses, annual hour burden, and an explanation of how the burden was estimated. If the hour burden on respondents is expected to vary widely because of differences in activity, size or complexity, show the range of estimated hour burden, and explain the reasons for the variance.

The total burden hour for this information collection is 33,274 total burden hours for the first year and 3,327 burden hours annually thereafter. Below we summarize our estimate.

The Commission estimated that 133,095 entries into ULS were filed during the first year (2009 – 2010) and 10% of those respondents (13,310) will add, delete and change their information each year thereafter. The Commission estimates that each entry will take approximately .25 hours (15 minutes) to complete, and each carrier can be expected to assign a staff engineer to perform this function.

.25 hours (15 minutes) x 13,310 entities for succeeding years = total annual 3,327 burden hours.

In-house Cost to the Respondent:

Below we summarize our estimate for the total in-house cost burden.

In-House Costs:

The Commission anticipates that the licensees will assign in-house staff engineers ($55 per hour, rounded up)⁶ to draft and submit the data. As indicated above, the annual hourly burden per carrier for this burden is estimated to be about .25 hours.

$55 x .25 hours = $14 (rounded up) per entity

$ 14 x 13,310 = $186,340 for successive years

2. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to respondents or record keepers resulting from the collection of information. Do not include the cost of any hour burden shown in items 12 and 14.

1. There will be no start-up or capital costs incurred by the respondent.

2. There will be no operation and maintenance costs incurred by the respondent.

2. Provide estimates of annualized costs to the Federal government. Also provide a description of the method used to estimate cost, which should include quantification of hours, operational expenses (such as equipment, overhead, printing, and support staff), and any other expenses that would not have been incurred without this collection of information.

Since the information is entered by the licensees into the Commission’s ULS database directly via the Internet, there is no reviewing, processing and handling costs on the part of the Commission. Also, the licensees have complete control over any changes to their contact information, further obviating the need for Commission intervention and supervision.

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported.

There are no program changes or adjustments with this information collection.

16. For collections of information whose results will be published, outline plans for tabulation and publication.

The data will not be published for statistical use.

17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reason that a display would be inappropriate.

The Commission is not seeking approval to not display the OMB expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection. The Commission publishes a list of all OMB-approved information collections including their OMB control numbers, OMB expiration dates and titles in 47 CFR 0.408.

18. Explain any exceptions to the statement certifying compliance with 5 C.F.R. § 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8(b)(3).

When the 60 Day Notice was published in the Federal Register on January 6, 2016 (81 FR 485), the Commission inadvertently published this information collection as a regular collection rather than a delegated collection.

There are no other exceptions to the Certification Statement

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods:

No statistical methods are employed.

1 For a description of spectrum acquisition and maintenance requirements, see 47 CFR 1.901 et seq., subpart F of the Commission’s rules.

2 Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Announces Enhancement of Universal Licensing System to Collect Operational Point of Contact Information from Public Safety Licensees and Non-Public Safety Licensees Designated as Emergency First Responders, Public Notice, DA 09-2043 (rel. September 14, 2009).

3 47 CFR § 4.5(a)

4 47 CFR § 4.11

5 47 CFR § 0.457

6 Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2014, Electronics Engineers, except computer hourly salary rate was retrieved from the Bureau of Labor of Statistics for the Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia division may be found at http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes172072.htm