60 Day Federal Register Notice

53852

Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 207 / Thursday, October 25, 2018 / Notices

2020, and make recommendations for
preferred alternatives. The panel will
also hold a discussion of possible
priorities for 2019 and develop
recommendations. Other business will
be discussed as necessary.
Although non-emergency issues not
contained in this agenda may come
before this group for discussion, those
issues may not be the subject of formal
action during these meetings. Action
will be restricted to those issues
specifically listed in this notice and any
issues arising after publication of this
notice that require emergency action
under section 305(c) of the MagnusonStevens Act, provided the public has
been notified of the Council’s intent to
take final action to address the
emergency. This meeting will be
recorded. Consistent with 16 U.S.C.
1852, a copy of the recording is
available upon request.
Special Accommodations
This meeting is physically accessible
to people with disabilities. Requests for
sign language interpretation or other
auxiliary aids should be directed to
Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, at
(978) 465–0492, at least 5 days prior to
the meeting date.
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.
Dated: October 22, 2018.
Tracey L. Thompson,
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable
Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2018–23361 Filed 10–24–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
RIN 0648–XG556

New England Fishery Management
Council; Public Meeting
National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice; public meeting.
AGENCY:

The New England Fishery
Management Council (Council) is
scheduling a public meeting of its
Groundfish Committee to consider
actions affecting New England fisheries
in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Recommendations from this group will
be brought to the full Council for formal
consideration and action, if appropriate.
DATES: This meeting will be held on
Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 1:30
p.m.

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SUMMARY:

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Authority: 16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.

ADDRESSES:

Meeting address: The meeting will be
held at the DoubleTree by Hilton, 50
Ferncroft Road, Danvers, MA 01923;
phone: (978) 777–2500.
Council address: New England
Fishery Management Council, 50 Water
Street, Mill 2, Newburyport, MA 01950.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director,
New England Fishery Management
Council; telephone: (978) 465–0492.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Agenda
The committee will discuss
Framework Adjustment 58:
Specifications/Management Measures—
specifically discuss draft alternatives
and Plan Development Team (PDT)
analysis including: (1) Rebuilding plan
options for several groundfish stocks, (2)
2019 total allowable catches for U.S./
Canada stocks of Eastern Georges Bank
(GB) cod, Eastern GB haddock, and GB
yellowtail flounder, (3) minimum size
exemptions for vessels fishing in
Northwest Atlantic Fisheries
Organization waters, and (4) temporary
change to scallop fishery accountability
measure policy for GB yellowtail
flounder for fishing years 2019 and
2020, and make recommendations for
preferred alternatives. The committee
will also hold a discussion of possible
priorities for 2019 and develop
recommendations. The committee will
review Groundfish PDT, Groundfish
Advisory Panel, and Recreational
Advisory Panel recommendations and
make recommendations to the Council.
Other business will be discussed as
necessary.
Although non-emergency issues not
contained in this agenda may come
before this group for discussion, those
issues may not be the subject of formal
action during these meetings. Action
will be restricted to those issues
specifically listed in this notice and any
issues arising after publication of this
notice that require emergency action
under section 305(c) of the MagnusonStevens Act, provided the public has
been notified of the Council’s intent to
take final action to address the
emergency. This meeting will be
recorded. Consistent with 16 U.S.C.
1852, a copy of the recording is
available upon request.
Special Accommodations
This meeting is physically accessible
to people with disabilities. Requests for
sign language interpretation or other
auxiliary aids should be directed to
Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director, at
(978) 465–0492, at least 5 days prior to
the date.

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Dated: October 22, 2018.
Tracey L. Thompson,
Acting Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable
Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service.
[FR Doc. 2018–23360 Filed 10–24–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
National Telecommunications and
Information Administration
Agency Information Collection
Activities; Proposed Information
Collection; Comment Request;
Broadband Availability Data
National Telecommunications
and Information Administration,
Commerce.

AGENCY:

ACTION:

Notice.

The U.S. Department of
Commerce, as part of its continuing
effort to reduce paperwork and
respondent burden, invites the general
public and other Federal agencies to
take this opportunity to comment on the
proposed information collection, as
required by the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995.

SUMMARY:

Written comments must be
submitted on or before December 24,
2018.

DATES:

Direct all written comments
to Jennifer Jessup, Departmental
Paperwork Clearance Officer,
Department of Commerce, (202) 482–
0336, Department of Commerce, Room
6612, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20230 (or via email at
[email protected]).

ADDRESSES:

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information or
copies of the information collection
instruments and instructions should be
sent to Andrew Spurgeon, Chief of
Operations, Office of
Telecommunications and Information
Applications, National
Telecommunications and Information
Administration, U.S. Department of
Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue
NW, Room 4887, Washington, DC 20230
(or via email at aspurgeon@
ntia.doc.gov).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract
The Consolidated Appropriations Act
of 2018 directed NTIA to update the
national broadband availability map in
coordination with the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC)

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Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 207 / Thursday, October 25, 2018 / Notices

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and the states.1 Specifically, Congress
directed NTIA to acquire and display
available third-party data sets to the
extent it is able to negotiate its inclusion
to augment data from the FCC, other
federal government agencies, state
government, and the private sector.2
The objective of these updates is to
identify regions of the country with
insufficient broadband capacity,
particularly in rural areas.
Presently, the only source of
nationwide broadband availability data
is that collected from broadband service
provider responses to the FCC Form 477
Fixed Broadband Deployment data
process. Form 477 data are submitted by
voice and broadband
telecommunications service providers
semi-annually and include information
on the services each provider offers, at
the Census block level.3 While the
Census block system provides a very
high level of geographic granularity
overall—the United States is divided
into over 11 million blocks, 95 percent
of which do not exceed 1 square mile
in land area—it is possible that
broadband availability may vary within
a single block, (which is most common
in rural areas). Additionally, broadband
service providers who wish to share
more granular data on broadband
availability—including regulated and
non-regulated entities—have no
mechanism to do so. Further, a
broadband service provider offering
service to any homes or businesses in a
Census block is instructed to report that
block as served in its Form 477 filing,
even though it may not offer broadband
services in most of the block. This can
lead to overstatements in the level of
broadband availability, especially in
rural areas where Census blocks are
large or when services are only available
near the boundaries of a Census block.
As a result of these constraints, NTIA
intends to collect broadband availability
data at a more granular level than that
available via the FCC Form 477 process.
This data will be used to better assess
broadband availability across the
country and particularly in rural areas.
This information collection covers the
50 states, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the
Island Areas of American Samoa, the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
1 Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018,
Public Law 115–141, Division B, Title I, 132 Stat.
348.
2 Joint Explanatory Statement, 164 Cong. Rec. No.
50—Book II, at H2084–85 (Mar. 22, 2018).
3 ‘‘All facilities-based broadband providers are
required to file data with the FCC twice a year
(Form 477) on where they offer internet access
service at speeds exceeding 200 kbps in at least one
direction.’’ See https://www.fcc.gov/general/
broadband-deployment-data-fcc-form-477.

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Islands, Guam, and the United States
Virgin Islands.
NTIA intends to collect this
information from two types of
respondents that collect broadband data
with more geographic granularity than
the Census block level: (1) Owners and
operators of broadband networks; and
(2) industry associations, data
aggregators, and researchers that study
or analyze broadband availability.
Respondents may include private
companies, non-profits, cooperatives,
educational institutions, tribal
governments, and local, regional, or
state governments. This information
collection includes the use of both
wireline and wireless technologies to
deliver broadband services.
The data to be collected includes
geographic information on service
availability—such as address, address
range, road centerline, land-parcel
identification, or latitude/longitude—
and corresponding broadband
availability data (such as technology
service type, upload and download
speed, etc.). Data in a Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) format that
describe (a) wireless coverage areas
based on a propagation model and (b)
network infrastructure (such as fiber
optic routes) is also responsive.
NTIA will not require that
respondents modify appropriate data
sets, with the exception that Personally
Identifiable Information (PII) should be
removed prior to transmission to NTIA.
Data collection operations will result in
respondent burden during: (1) Efforts to
assemble their data for transmission to
NTIA; (2) removal of PII; and (3) NTIA
communications with respondent
contacts to ensure NTIA correctly
understands the data.
II. Method of Collection
The information collection will be
administered through an online file
transfer tool.
III. Data
OMB Control Number: None.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Review: Regular submission.
Affected Public: Owners and
operators of broadband networks,
industry associations, data aggregators,
and researchers.
Frequency: Annual.
Number of Respondents: 600.
Average Time per Response: 8 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Burden
Hours: 4,800 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Cost to
Public: $200,832.
IV. Request for Comments
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether
the proposed collection of information

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53853

is necessary for the proper performance
of the functions of the agency, including
whether the information shall have
practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the
agency’s estimate of the burden
(including hours and cost) of the
proposed collection of information; (c)
ways to enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be
collected; and (d) ways to minimize the
burden of the collection of information
on respondents, including through the
use of automated collection techniques
or other forms of information
technology.
Comments submitted in response to
this notice will be summarized and/or
included in the request for OMB
approval of this information collection;
they will also become a matter of public
record.
Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of the
Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018–23296 Filed 10–24–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–60–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Patent and Trademark Office
[Docket No.: PTO–P–2018–0051]

Access to Relevant Prior Art Initiative
United States Patent and
Trademark Office, Commerce.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:

The United States Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) is
implementing the first phase of the
Access to Relevant Prior Art Initiative
(‘‘RPA Initiative’’) to import citations
(e.g., bibliographic data on forms PTO/
SB/08 and PTO–892) from the
immediate parent application into the
continuing application. The citations
corresponding to the documents
considered by the examiner in the
continuing application will be printed
on the face of the patent issuing from
the continuing application without the
applicant having to resubmit the
information on an Information
Disclosure Statement. Additionally, an
applicant’s duty to disclose information
in the continuing application will
continue to be satisfied for information
considered in the parent application
and will be satisfied for any additional
information made of record by the
Office in the continuing application.
The RPA Initiative is being developed in
response to public input following an
August 29, 2016, notice and September
28, 2016, roundtable event on leveraging
electronic resources to retrieve

SUMMARY:

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