The FCC's rules and related
requirements are designed to ensure that the competitive bidding
process for assigning toll free numbers is limited to qualified
applicants, deter possible abuse of the bidding process, and
enhance the use of competitive bidding to assign toll free numbers
in furtherance of the public interest. Applicants will use FCC Form
833 to submit the required disclosures and certifications, and the
information collected on FCC Form 833 will then be reviewed to
determine if an applicant is qualified to bid in the 833 code toll
free number auction (833 Auction). The 833 Auction will not be able
to occur without the collection of information on FCC Form 833.
Without the information collected on FCC Form 833, a determination
of whether the applicant is qualified to bid in the 833 Auction
cannot be made.
The Commission sought
comment on proposed procedures for conducting the 833 Auction,
including applications, payments, and other auction policies and
procedures. The final procedures for the 833 Auction were adopted
by the Commission on August 1, 2019. The 833 Auction is scheduled
for December 17, 2019. The Commission’s pre-auction process for
evaluating auction applications and identifying qualified bidders
in a typical auction—which Somos will draw upon for the 833
Auction—requires a substantial amount of staff review time. Due to
the novelty of using an auction in the toll free context, we
anticipate the amount of time needed to evaluate applications and
identify qualified bidders for the 833 Auction is likely to be even
more substantial. Therefore, in order to conduct the 833 Auction
according to the schedule, Somos will need to receive applications
to participate in the auction at least three months prior to the
scheduled auction date. Given the timing for the auction, Somos
will begin accepting FCC Form 833 applications in October 2019.
Emergency processing is required because of the limited time
between when the 833 Auction procedures were adopted by the
Commission and when applicants must begin submitting their FCC Form
833 applications. There is good cause to grant emergency processing
of this collection. First, relevant parties have already received
notice of the collection. The 833 Order and the Toll Free
Assignment R&O provided notice to interested parties about the
auction and the general framework for the application and bidding.
Requiring the Commission to seek OMB’s approval for this new
collection under the regular PRA processing procedures would
significantly delay the 833 Auction and, in turn, the assignment of
toll free numbers in the 833 code to parties that participated in
the 833 pre-code opening process and have been waiting for a
significant amount of time (to their possible detriment) to obtain
the numbers they requested. Moreover, if the Commission were to
wait 120 days to formally notify the public and potential
interested parties of its intent to collect this information on FCC
Form 833, the Commission’s ability to begin accepting applications
to participate in the 833 Auction may be substantially delayed.
Emergency approval avoids a delay in assigning the mutually
exclusive 833 code toll free numbers to subscribers who rely on
these numbers for their businesses and non-profit organizations, as
well as a delay in facilitating the ability of callers/customers
trying to reach those businesses and organizations.
This is a new information
collection resulting in a program change/increase of 200
respondents, 200 responses, and 300 total estimated burden
hours.
$0
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
Uncollected
Heather Hendrickson
2024187295
No
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.