JUSTIFICATION
No Material/Non-substantive Change Reequest
EXTENSION OF SERVICE PROVIDER COMMENT PERIOD
OMB CONTROL NUMBERS 0660-0031
(Expiration Date: 10/31/2010)
Announcement of Proposed Funded Service Areas
On April 1, 2010, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) requested that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve a revision of a currently approved collection under the emergency provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act. Specifically, NTIA sought a revision to the “Proposed Funded Service Area Process-PNF/PRN” form. In the emergency request package, NTIA’s Supporting Statement stated that NTIA “plans to seek comments from broadband service providers providing services in the proposed funded service areas of the proposed CCI projects. For at least a 15-day period, NTIA will post an announcement on BroadbandUSA.gov identifying all of the Census block groups or tracts included within the proposed funded service area of any of the CCI applications submitted.
The announcement will provide existing broadband service providers with an opportunity to voluntarily submit to NTIA information about the broadband services that they currently offer in their respective service territories by Census block group or tract. NTIA will provide a template for submissions from service providers.” NTIA additionally published a notice in the Federal Register requesting written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection from the public by April 9, 2010, 75 Fed. Reg. 17376 (Apr. 6, 2010).
In response to the notice in the Federal Register, NTIA received comments from Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance (ITTA), 360networks, Montana Telecommunications Association (MTA), and National Telecommunications Cooperative Association. The consistent request among all commenters was to extend the service provider comment window from 15 days to 30 days, in order to give service providers a sufficient amount of time to review the Census block groups or tracts so they may provide meaningful data on the offered services in those areas.
NTIA has considered this request and will be announcing the extension of the service provider comment window to 25 days. NTIA will make this announcement on its website. NTIA has proposed the following language for the website:
IMPORTANT: Announcement of Extended 25-day Comment Period for CCI Projects. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announces that broadband service providers wishing voluntarily to provide information on the services they provide in the proposed funded service areas of any of the submitted Comprehensive Community Infrastructure (CCI) projects for the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) will have until 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on [insert date 25 days from posting of the announcement]. Such information should include the
broadband services they currently offer in their respective service territories by Census block group or tract. This comment period adds 10 days to the 15-day period originally provided in the BTOP Notice of Funds Availability for the second funding round (Second NOFA), 75 Fed. Reg. 3792, 3801 (Jan. 22, 2010).
NTIA believes the 25-day window will provide the service providers with a sufficient amount of time to review the proposed funded service areas of any of the submitted CCI projects and provide NTIA with meaningful information on the services offered in their respective service territories by Census block group or tract.
There are no proposed changes in estimated number of respondents, responses, burden hours, or burden cost due to this change request.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | JUSTIFICATION |
| Author | lcoble |
| File Modified | 2010-04-13 |
| File Created | 2010-04-13 |