In April 1996, the Commission issued a
notice of proposed rulemaking concerning certain provisions of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 (“1996 Act”), including section 251.
Section 251 is designed to accelerate private sector development
and deployment of telecommunications technologies and services by
spurring competition. The Commission has adopted rules and
regulations designed to implement certain provisions of section
251, and to eliminate operational barriers to competition in the
telecommunications services market. In November 2017, the
Commission adopted new rules concerning certain information
collection requirements implemented under section 251(c)(5) of the
Act, pertaining to network change disclosures. Most of the changes
to those rules applied specifically to a certain subset of network
change disclosures, namely notices of planned copper retirements.
In addition, the changes removed a rule that prohibits incumbent
LECs from engaging in useful advanced coordination with entities
affected by network changes. one of rules pertaining to network
change disclosures to include appropriate titles for public notices
of copper retirement. In June 2018, the Commission revised its
network change disclosure rules to (1) revise the types of network
changes that trigger an incumbent LEC’s public notice obligation,
and (2) extend the force majeure provisions applicable to copper
retirements to all types of network changes.
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.