PRA - PSAP Notification 911 reliability and 988 Supporting Statement CLEAN 8.19.24 225PM

Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning 3060-0484

Disruptions to Communications August 2024

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

A. Justification:

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

Revisions to Information Collection Requirements Which Require OMB Approval

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) is requesting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval of a revision of this information collection, which is associated with the Commission’s outage reporting rules. As part of this revision, the Commission updates the title of this collection from “Section 4.9, Part 4 of the Commission's Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications” to “Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications.” The Commission seeks to revise this collection to reflect changes to these rules adopted by the Commission in a Second Report and Order on November 18, 2022 (harmonizing its existing 911 outage notification rules for originating service providers and covered 911 service providers),¹ and in a Report and Order on July 20, 2023 (extending outage reporting and notification requirements to outages affecting 988 special facilities).²

When covered 911 service providers or originating service providers (OSPs) experience an outage that potentially affects 911, the Commission’s 911 special facility outage notification rules require them to notify 911 special facilities that could potentially be affected.³ The 2022 Second Report and Order adopted a 911 special facility notification process where outage notifications from covered 911 service providers and OSPs will include the same notification content, be transmitted by the same means, as well as with the same timing and frequency.⁴ In addition, the 2022 Second Report and Order aligns the content of 911 special facilities outage notifications with the template developed by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions’ (ATIS) Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) Situational Awareness for 9-1-1 Outages Task Force Subcommittee (NRSC Task Force).⁵

Standardizing Content for 911 Outage Notifications. As a result of the 2022 Second Report and Order, covered 911 service providers and OSPs will both be required to provide specific itemized data elements in their outage notification to 911 special facilities. In addition to this supplemental content required by the new template, OSPs will be required to “notify 911 special facilities by telephone and in writing by electronic means” as covered 911 service providers already do, unless an OSP and a 911 special facility mutually agree to an alternative means of notification.⁶ OSPs also must provide that outage notification to the 911 special facility within 30 minutes of discovery of the outage, as covered 911 service providers already do.⁷ After that initial notification, OSPs and covered 911 service providers must provide material information to 911 special facilities as soon as it becomes available for the duration of the outage. In any event, OSPs are required to provide an 911 special facilities with an update no later than two hours following delivery of the initial notification, as covered 911 service providers already do.⁸ We believe that harmonizing and standardizing 911 outage reporting assists 911 special facilities in receiving and responding to service outage notifications, and the information we are requiring to be contained in the reports will improve the speed and accuracy of responses to service outages by 911 service providers, which promotes public safety.

Maintaining Accurate Contact Information for 911 Special Facilities. The 2022 Second Report and Order requires covered 911 service providers and OSPs to obtain accurate contact information for each 911 special facility it serves, and to verify and update that information annually. We have observed situations where providers have been unable to notify 911 special facilities they serve of service outages because the provider lacked accurate contact information for the 911 special facility. Accurately reporting service outages to 911 special facilities is imperative because when someone dials 911 it is often for an emergency where time is of the essence. Requiring covered 911 service providers and OSPs to utilize “special diligence”⁹ to obtain and maintain correct contact information for the 911 special facilities they serve will reduce the number of preventable delays that customers experience when dialing 911.¹⁰

The 2023 Report and Order adopts rules designed to ensure that officials responsible for overseeing the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988 Lifeline), which is a 24/7 hotline available to people in suicidal crisis and mental health distress, receive timely and actionable information about 988 service outages. The rules require OSPs and a new category of “covered 988 service providers” to report outages that potentially affect the 988 Lifeline to the Commission’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), similar to the Commission’s existing rules that require the reporting of outages that potentially affect 911.¹¹ Outages that potentially affect a 988 special facility are defined as events that result in the loss of the ability of the 988 Lifeline to receive, process, or forward calls, potentially affecting at least 900,000 user-minutes and lasting at least 30 minutes duration.¹²

The 2023 Report and Order also requires that these providers provide notice to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the 988 Lifeline administrator when an outage that potentially affects a 988 special facility occurs.¹³ For outages lasting longer than 2 hours, the providers must follow-up with subsequent notifications of material information as soon as possible after discovery of the new material information, and continue providing additional material information until the outage is completely repaired and service is fully restored. These service providers are also required to maintain up-to-date contact information for those individuals identified by SAMHSA, the VA, and the 988 Lifeline administrator to receive outage notifications.¹⁴

Current Information Collection Requirements Previously Approved by OMB:

The current approved information collection is associated with the Commission’s outage reporting rules that historically have required a set of communication service providers to report to the Commission when they experience a service disruption, or “outage” in their respective networks.¹⁵ In 2004, the Commission replaced its original outage reporting requirements from the 1990s¹⁶ with outage reporting requirements for service providers of wireline, wireless, satellite, cable, interexchange, local exchange, and SS7 service.¹⁷ Then, in 2012, the Commission further expanded the requirements to include interconnected voice over Internet protocol (interconnected VoIP) service providers.¹⁸ In 2013, the Commission required covered 911 service providers to provide notifications of outages affecting 911 service to PSAPs they serve within 30 minutes of discovering the outage and also required the filing of outage reports in NORS.¹⁹ Finally, in 2016, the Commission adopted a set of improvements to these rules in the 2016 Part 4 Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration.²⁰

Network Outage Reporting System. In 2004, to facilitate the process when service providers file in accordance to the outage reporting requirements, the Commission created NORS, a web-based filing system.²¹ NORS uses an electronic form to promote ease of reporting and encryption technology to ensure the security of the information filed. Providers submit into NORS three types of filings, (1) Notifications, (2) Initial Reports (for non-interconnected VoIP outages), and (3) Final Reports. These filings contain sensitive information about service disruption or outages that, among other things, include: reason the event is reportable, incident date/time and location details, states affected, number of potentially affected customers, and whether E911 was impacted.²²

Participating Agencies Access to NORS. In 2021, the Commission adopted rules allowing certain federal, state, territorial, and Tribal Nations agencies with a “need to know” (“Participating Agencies”) direct access to geographically relevant outage reports filed in NORS and DIRS.²³ The information collection and record keeping requirements imposed on Participating Agencies that desire access to NORS and DIRS²⁴ reports are contained in Section 4.2 of the Commission’s Rules.²⁵

Statutory authority for this collection of information is contained in sections 1, 4(i), 4(j), 4(n), 4(o), 201(b), 214, 218, 251(e)(3), 251(e)(4), 254, 301, 303(b), 303(g), 303(r), 307, 309(a), 309(j), 316, 332, and 403 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i)-(j), (n), & (o), 201(b), 214, 218, 251(e)(3), 251(e)(4), 254, 301, 303(b), 303(g), 303(r), 307, 309(a), 332, 403, 615, 615a-1, and 1302.

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

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.

The general purpose of the Commission’s Part 4 rules is to gather sufficient information regarding service disruptions to telecommunications. Through this information collection, data received facilitates the Commission’s monitoring, analysis, and investigation of the reliability and security of voice, paging, and interconnected VoIP communications services. Data received through this information collection also helps the Commission identify and act on potential threats to our Nation’s telecommunications infrastructure. Moreover, the Commission uses this information collection to identify the duration, magnitude, root causes, contributing factors with respect to significant outages; and to identify outage trends; support service restoration efforts; and help coordinate with public safety officials during times of crisis.

The Commission also maintains an ongoing dialogue with reporting service providers, the public safety community, and the telecommunications industry at large. The Commission uses the information collection to draw lessons learned in order to foster a better understanding of significant outages’ root causes, and to explore preventive measures in the future so as to mitigate the potential scale and impact of such outages. The Commission shares information contained in those reports with Participating Agencies to help improve situational awareness during and after disasters to the entities closest to the disasters and to help those agencies better assess the public’s ability to access emergency communications and assist with the coordination of emergency response efforts. To enable the Commission to ensure that only qualifying agencies that agree to follow the information sharing requirements are permitted to access NORS, Participating Agencies that voluntarily seek access are required to submit an application and sign a Certification Form that agrees to certain reporting and recordkeeping requirements that are necessary to protect the confidential data from inappropriate disclosure.

The existing requirement that covered 911 service providers and OSPs notify 911 special facilities (including PSAPs) about outages that potentially affect them affords emergency responders immediate and accurate situational awareness regarding the status of incoming communications and allows them to quickly take any necessary corrective action to provide the public with access to their emergency services (e.g., by publicizing local 10-digit numbers for emergency service access while the 911 calling is unavailable).

Harmonizing the existing notification requirements for covered 911 service providers and OSPs will simplify compliance for providers and reduce confusion for 911 special facilities. Among other harmonization requirements, OSPs will be required to provide outage notification to potentially affected 911 special facilities within 30 minutes. These initial notifications are intended to provide preliminary notice of a potential problem to a 911 special facility so that the 911 special facility can, as quickly as possible, mitigate the impacts of the outage, and alert the public to alternative means of emergency services. If a 911 special facility does not receive timely outage notification, it cannot effectively initiate alternate means of communications and provide access for those populations affected by the outage. A notification’s utility to a PSAP is diminished significantly as time passes. Adopting the 30-minute reporting requirement balanced the interest of emergency management professionals who advocated for a shorter (i.e., 15-minute) reporting period against the interest of OSPs who advocated that outages be reported as soon as possible. In addition, the Commission required covered 911 service providers and OSPs to obtain accurate contact information for the 911 special facilities they serve, and then at least annually, verify the continued accuracy of that contact information. This information will be used by covered 911 service providers and OSPs to ensure they can successfully reach 911 special facilities with their outage notifications so that those facilities can effectively respond to those outages.

The new requirement that covered 988 service providers and OSPs notify 988 special facilities about outages that potentially affect them serves these same purposes with respect to the availability of the 988 Lifeline, including providing notice to SAMHSA, the VA, and the 988 Lifeline administrator when an outage that potentially affects a 988 special facility occurs.

3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission 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.

The Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) maintains the NORS web-based portal for the electronic submission of NORS filings.²⁶ To facilitate compliance with the reporting requirements, the Commission developed web-based templates that it makes available on the NORS web portal. Service providers use the templates to simplify and standardize the process of entering information about outages experienced in their networks. These submissions are then made available to Commission staff in real time in the NORS web-based portal.

For ease of administration, each service provider may request credentials for NORS for two types of accounts. A user account with two levels of privileges: (a) filings submitted on behalf of the service provider; and (b) filings access to all submissions filed on behalf of the service provider, including filings submitted by others acting on behalf of the service provider. Further, other user accounts with a more limited role to submit and view only their respective filings for the service provider are available. To further facilitate ease of use, users may draw from previously submitted information in a Notification or an Initial Report to submit a Final Report for the same event. For the service providers with automatic filing systems, NORS is equipped with an interface to accept outage filings via automatic filing systems.

Participating Agencies’ requests to access NORS information (including required accompanying materials) and any required notifications are submitted to the Commission electronically via a dedicated e-mail address. Required follow-up will also be conducted electronically. This method reduces the burden on the agency and Commission staff as forms and correspondence will be stored and accessed electronically. Once the request for access is approved, the Participating Agencies will be able to access a web page maintained by PSHSB that will permit access to the NORS report database.

The 2022 Second Report and Order revised the means by which OSPs are required to notify 911 special facilities from “by telephone or in writing via electronic means” to “by telephone and in writing via electronic means in the absence of another method mutually agreed upon in writing.”²⁷ In recognition of the fact that smaller OSPs and 911 special facilities may have varying degrees of staff resources and degrees of technological sophistication, our rules allow for these parties to mutually agree upon alternative means of notification. For example, if an OSP and a 911 special facility agree to transmit and receive outage notifications by text only, the parties can agree to that, likely reducing both parties burden in complying with this collection. The Commission does not require covered 911 service providers, covered 988 service providers, and OSPs to automate notification, but believes that some providers will (or already do) automate this process as a means of mitigating burdens. With regard to the requirement to obtain accurate contact information for 911 and 988 special facilities they serve, we anticipate that providers will utilize an email or web-based survey to reach out to those facilities.

4. 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.

The information collected is not duplicative of other information received by the Commission. With regard to outage notifications that are required to be provided to 911 special facilities, the requirements set forth in the 2022 Second Report and Order harmonize existing outage notification requirements across service providers that previously differed in content, means, timing, and frequency. In doing so, the Commission avoids duplication by modifying existing notification requirements. With regard to outage notifications that are required to be provided to 988 special facilities, the Commission recognized that OSPs are already required to report voice service outages in NORS, regardless of a call’s destination and would not be required to submit duplicative reports for those outages.²⁸

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

The Commission does not relieve small entities, in whole or in part, from the outage reporting obligations, 911 and 988 special facility notification obligations, or NORS-DIRS information sharing obligations. However, the Commission explained in the Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) that accompanied the Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration adopted in 2016, that the agency believed that the “outage reporting triggers are set sufficiently high as to make it unlikely that small businesses would be impacted significantly by the final rules.”²⁹ The Commission also explained in the Final Regulatory Flexibility Analyses (FRFAs) that accompanied both the 2022 Second Report and Order and the 2023 Report and Order that it is not in a position to determine whether these new rules will require small entities to hire attorneys, engineers, consultants, or other professionals, but note that some service providers already perform measures that contribute to their ability to comply with these requirements.³⁰ In addition, as noted by the Commission in the 2024 Order on Reconsideration, outage notification reconsideration order that the burden on smaller carriers to provide notifications is likely to be less than for larger carriers because the notification requirement is based in part on the potential user minutes impacted. Because smaller carriers serve few customers, they would need to experience a longer outage to reach the user-minute threshold required for notification, which provides the carrier with more time to investigate the outage before it is reportable.³¹

We note that the requirement to notify 911 special facilities of outages was already in place, and therefore, small entity providers should be familiar with the existing requirements and have comparable operational processes and procedures already in place. Some OSPs may already offer follow-up notifications to 911 special facilities and may regularly elicit and verify 911 special facility contact information to make their outage notifications more timely and accurate. The elements for 911 special facility outage notifications largely track the NRSC Task Force’s template. Therefore, to the extent small entities have or will implement the ATIS NRSC Task Force’s template, compliance with the Commission’s rules should not impose significant additional costs. The adopted approach establishes a baseline expectation of shared information while otherwise preserving flexibility for service providers to determine the means by which they present this information to 911 special facilities. To the extent that small businesses and entities already satisfy the new requirements, there will be no additional burden. The nominal increase in the level of detail required for certain aspects of these notifications will not unduly burden small entities. Lastly, the Commission does not specify the particular procedures that service providers must develop or follow to elicit 911 special facility contact information.

For the rules adopted in the 2023 Report and Order, the Commission adopted requirements that closely track existing requirements related to 911 outage reporting and notification, which should minimize some economic impact of compliance for small entities. The Commission also minimized the economic impact for small entities by allowing additional time for compliance for those covered 988 service providers that may not have existing NORS filing or outage notification obligations.

With regard to Participating Agencies, the Commission maximizes flexibility and reduces potential costs of compliance by allowing agencies to develop their own training program or rely on an outside training program that covers, at a minimum, each of the required “program elements,” and providing agencies with a single form to make the required certifications and acknowledgments required for direct access to NORS.

6. Describe the consequences to a Federal program or policy activity, if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reduce burden.

The Commission has a statutory mandate to “promot[e] the safety of life and property through the use of wire and radio communications,”³² and Congress has delegated to the Commission specific responsibilities to “designate 911 as the universal emergency telephone number for reporting an emergency to appropriate authorities and requesting assistance.”³³ Similarly, Congress has also amended section 251 of the Communications Act of 1934 to specify 988 as the universal telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.³⁴ Outage reporting via NORS, information sharing, and notification to special facilities are critical and inter-related components of the Commission’s efforts to protect public safety by ensuring that 911 and 988 communications are as reliable and resilient as possible. If no reporting of outages via NORS were to be required, the Commission would be impeded from fulfilling its statutory obligations under the Communications Act to promote the reliability and security of the nation’s 911 networks for the benefit of all Americans. Outage reporting via NORS provides the Commission with timely and reliable data that enables the Commission to monitor the reliability of these networks. Therefore, the information is collected throughout the year.

Regarding Participating Agencies’ access to provider information filed in NORS, if this information was not collected, it would be unavailable to state, federal, local, Tribal Nation, and territorial partners as well as SAMHSA, the VA, and the 988 Lifeline administrator, and would in turn reduce their situational awareness and ability to make informed decisions on how to direct resources in the most timely, accurate, and efficient manner possible. In addition, if the Commission did not collect application, certification, and notification information from Participating Agencies, there would be a greater likelihood that the sensitive information contained in NORS filings would be shared, disclosed, or used beyond what is permitted by the information sharing framework.

Regarding outage notifications to special facilities, if 911 special facilities (including PSAPs) and 988 special facilities were notified about outages that potentially affect them less frequently, they would not have timely and accurate information about those outages. This would significantly disrupt, if not eliminate, their ability to quickly take any necessary corrective action to provide the public with access to lifesaving services.

7. Explain any special circumstances that would cause an information collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the criteria listed in supporting statement.

This revised information collection is consistent with the requirements of 5 CFR § 1320 and the criteria listed in this Supporting Statement. While the information collection requires service provider respondents to submit information at short intervals after the respondent discovers that it is experiencing an outage in its network, these respondents already monitor their networks for these service disruptions and submitting this information is accounted for in this statement. Moreover, these respondents may submit proprietary or other sensitive information as a result of this information collection, however, the Commission treats submissions and the information contained therein as presumptively confidential. The Commission does not anticipate circumstances that would result in a collection of information in an inconsistent manner.

8. If applicable, provide a copy and identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the agency’s Report and Order, required by 5 CFR 1320.8(d), soliciting comments on the information prior to submission to OMB.

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 in the Federal Register on November 8, 2023 (88 FR 77093-94). The Commission received two PRA comments as a result of this notice. Intrado Life & Safety, Inc. (Intrado) filed comments on its own behalf³⁵ and ACA Connects – America’s Communications Association (ACA Connects), Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), CTIA, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association (NCTA), and USTelecom – The Broadband Association (USTelecom), (together, the Associations) filed joint comments.³⁶

30-minute Notification Requirement. Intrado and the Associations contend the 30-minute notification requirement will result in OSPs over-reporting outages, over-notifying special facilities, and providing less accurate notifications in an attempt to avoid non-compliance.³⁷ The Commission has addressed and resolved these concerns in both its 2022 Second Report and Order and its 2024 Order on Reconsideration³⁸ and Intrado and the Associations raise no new issues here. Specifically, the 30-minute notification requirement represents an appropriate balance between the need for timely and actionable 911 outage information and risks associated with the limited potential for over-reporting of outages, over-notifying special facilities, and providing less accurate notifications.³⁹ The need for timely and actionable 911 outage information is evident. If a 911 special facility does not receive timely outage notification, it cannot effectively initiate alternate means of communications and provide access for those populations impacted by the outage.⁴⁰ Moreover, as the Commission confirms, in the absence of a specific time limit, the “as soon as possible” standard is insufficient to incentivize OSPs to provide timely outage notifications, but instead creates an incentive for them to take a passive approach to monitoring and detecting outages.⁴¹ This could “allow service providers . . . to delay outage notifications for hours after discovery,” and “would not serve the public safety purposes of the rule.”⁴² Delaying the receipt of outage notifications would undermine the ability of PSAPs to provide timely information to the public when an outage impacts 911 service and reverting to a notification standard with no time limit would exacerbate the very harm the rule was adopted to address.⁴³ Any potential risk of over-reporting of outages, over-notifying special facilities, and providing less accurate notifications does not overcome the critical importance of ensuring the timely availability of 911 outage information. The Commission has rejected arguments that notifications sent within a 30-minute deadline will lack meaningful information and will confuse or mislead PSAPs.⁴⁴ The Commission has noted that the purpose of the initial notification is not to provide complete information about the outage, but to serve as a “preliminary notice of a potential problem to a 911 special facility.”⁴⁵ As a practical matter of how the deadline is calculated, OSPs will have at least an hour, and potentially more, from the start of any outage to gather information to include in the initial outage notifications to PSAPs.⁴⁶Further, and as discussed below, the Commission previously concluded that proper application of the 30-minute notification rule (e.g., notification of outages that meet reporting thresholds) should limit the risk of over-notification and the commenters do not persuasively contradict this conclusion.⁴⁷

Intrado and the Associations also contend that the Commission has not provided objective support for its estimated cost of complying with the 30-minute notification requirement.⁴⁸ To the contrary, the Commission’s cost estimates are objectively supported as required by the PRA.⁴⁹ In the 2022 Second Report and Order, the Commission based its cost estimates on an estimated wage derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job category of “Communications Equipment Operators, All Other;” an estimate of 2,890 providers, which it based on Commission data and analysis; an estimate of 37,000 outages requiring notifications per year, which it based on the number of outages potentially affecting 911 special facilities reported in the Commission’s NORS database in 2020; and an estimate of one hour per outage to send out two notifications.⁵⁰ Further, the Commission sought comment on the accuracy of these estimates in its Third Notice,⁵¹ and received no persuasive objections or alternative calculations in response. The Commission’s estimate of the burden on providers calculated below is based upon updated figures as provided in the 2023 Third Report and Order.⁵²

Now, however, the Associations argue that the burden estimate for OSPs to meet the 30-minute notification requirement fails to include an increase in the number of outage notifications that will be necessary under the rules, as OSPs “are likely to incur unnecessary costs to produce more outage notifications that may or may not be relevant or may not require changes to special facilities operations.”⁵³ The Associations’ argument is not convincing. Because the Commission’s rules only require OSPs to notify 911 special facilities about those outages that potentially affect them, it would be inappropriate for the Commission’s burden estimate to include additional notifications that its rules do not require, that no party to its proceedings has attempted to quantify, and that would be the result of providers’ choices to implement the rule in an overinclusive and uncoordinated manner.⁵⁴ As noted, the Commission has already found that the proper application of the rule should limit the risk of over-notification.⁵⁵ The Associations also speculate that PSAPs will face an increased burden because they will be receiving additional notifications and may be over-notified. This conjecture, however, is contradicted by the record in this matter. The public safety commenters did not identify nor quantify any additional burdens they expect to bear as a result of this collection. To the contrary, public safety commenters have indicated that the problem with 911 special facility outage notification they face today is not too many notifications, but too few.⁵⁶ Regardless, the Commission believes that the use to which PSAPs put these notifications, and the amount of time they will spend reviewing them, falls outside of the scope of this information collection and need not be incorporated into the Commission’s burden analysis here.

Intrado’s speculation that the Commission’s burden estimate for the 30-minute notification requirement is based “just on the physical act of sending out a notification by e-mail”⁵⁷ is likewise unfounded. Intrado offers no support for this conjecture. To the contrary, the estimate includes all of the activities associated with preparing and transmitting required notifications including obtaining and maintaining a list of 911 special facilities and 988 special facilities, up to date contact information, preparing and transmitting the initial notification to 911 and/or 988 special facilities of the outage and providing a more detailed follow-up. In addition, the actual burden may actually be less than the estimated burden as some OSPs may have automated their PSAP outage notification processes.

Intrado’s view that OSPs and 911 vendors will need to upgrade their networks and services and “completely redo their current incident identification and response systems” to comply with the 30-minute notification requirement is not correct.⁵⁸ As the Commission notes in its 2022 Second Report and Order, the Commission’s rules already require OSPs to send 911 outage notifications “as soon as possible” and require covered 911 service providers to send those notifications “as soon as possible, but no later than 30 minutes after discovering the outage.”⁵⁹ As a result, we expect that OSPs, covered 911 service providers, and their third-party vendors already have the capability to detect outages that potentially affect 911 special facilities in an amount of time that is commensurate to the public safety risk that they pose.⁶⁰ Because Intrado itself provides both covered 911 services and vendor services to other covered 911 service providers that are both already subject to the 30-minute notification requirement, extending this requirement to OSPs should not require OSPs nor their vendors, such as Intrado, to make substantial network investments. To the extent that providers would need to dedicate additional labor hours to comply with these requirements, those costs are already included in the Commission’s burden estimate.

Maintaining a Contact List. With respect to the requirement to maintain an updated PSAP contact list, Intrado argues that the Commission incorrectly estimated the time it will take to create the initial PSAP contact list, the time needed to keep the list updated, and the average hourly rate of employees assigned these tasks.⁶¹ Intrado’s argument is unconvincing. As to the average hourly rate of employees calculated by the Commission, Intrado is simply incorrect to assert that the Commission provided no information on how it arrived at the average hourly rate. In its Third Notice, the Commission sought comment on whether an accurate wage estimate should be derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job category of “Communications Equipment Operators, All Other,” which the Commission used specifically to avoid under-estimating labor costs for tasks that are likely performed by lower-paid workers.⁶² No commenters to its rulemaking proceeding opposed this wage estimate, and the Commission thus reasonably relied upon this estimate in its Second Report and Order.⁶³

Intrado also confuses the elements of the Commission’s cost estimates. While Intrado acknowledges that the one-time cost of creating a PSAP contact list encompasses the costs of creating an e-mail survey and harmonizing outage notification templates, it argues that this cost estimate is too low because it underestimates the costs of following up with PSAPs that do not respond.⁶⁴ However, the Commission has properly considered as part of its estimate of annual costs the potential need for follow-up with PSAPS that do not respond .⁶⁵ Furthermore, as discussed below, the Commission has upwardly adjusted the burden estimate to reflect the cost estimates submitted to the Commission by AT&T.

Intrado’s argument that the one-time cost analyses in the Commission’s Second Report and Order is in conflict with the Commission’s Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is also without merit.⁶⁶ Intrado did not identify specific differences in these analyses and the Commission itself has been unable to discern any such differences. The one-time cost analyses in the Second Report and Order and the Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis capture the same costs.⁶⁷

To the extent that Intrado and the Associations both argue that the Commission’s estimated burden for OSPs to maintain the PSAP contact information is too low, the Commission has revised its cost estimates as appropriate.⁶⁸ The Commission has adjusted the burden estimate to reflect the cost estimates submitted to the Commission by AT&T, as recommended by the Associations.⁶⁹ On the other hand, the Commission is not persuaded by Intrado’s alternative cost estimates, which are not supported by evidence and do not take into consideration the fact that burdens would differ for providers of different sizes.⁷⁰ Accordingly, the Commission did not adjust its cost estimate in response to Intrado’s comments. The adjusted cost estimate, which the Commission believes is reasonable and accurate, is reflected below.

Intrado and the Associations both argue the burdens of maintaining PSAP contact lists could have been reduced further if the FCC had opted to create a centralized database for PSAP contact information rather than requiring OSPs to create and maintain a PSAP contact list.⁷¹ Intrado maintains that the creation of a database was widely supported and that the Commission rejected the possibility of creating a database without explaining why it did so.⁷² Intrado’s assertion is false, as the Commission found in its 2022 Second Report and Order that there was conflicting evidence in the record about the potential costs and benefits of differing database proposals and deferred the issue for later consideration.⁷³ In any event, the Commission noted that any entity is free to establish and maintain a centralized contact database for 911 special facilities if it chooses to do so.⁷⁴ In other words, the Commission’s requirement is appropriate to achieve the Commission’s objectives while allowing respondents flexibility to decide the most cost-effective way to comply with that requirement (whether that be via creating an individual contact list or collaborating on a database solution).⁷⁵ Further, OSPs are already required to contact PSAPs when an outage occurs, which requires them to already have current PSAP contact information that they may obtain through various sources.⁷⁶ In light of these existing resources and the flexibility provided to providers as to their method of compliance, the Commission has taken reasonable steps to minimize the burdens associated with this collection.

Special Diligence. Intrado and the Associations claim the Commission’s requirement that OSPs exercise “special diligence” to maintain the contact list is ambiguous and that the Commission failed to provide OSPs with a way to understand what level of diligence satisfies the rule. This argument is unpersuasive. The 2022 Second Report and Order fully explains the special diligence standard, which is defined as “the diligence expected from a person practicing in a particular field of specialty under circumstances like those at issue,” and provides an example of what special diligence may require— actively seeking to confirm the accuracy of contact information and not relying on the absence of a response.⁷⁷ In the 2024 Order on Reconsideration, the Commission expressly rejected the view that the special diligence standard failed to provide certainty.⁷⁸ The Commission noted that it had properly rejected commenters’ proposed alternatives to the special diligence standard, including the proposal that that three attempts to contact 911 special facilities would be sufficient to satisfy the requirement.⁷⁹ In doing so, the Commission made clear that approaches that would “allow 911 service providers and OSPs to satisfy their obligations . . . by simply reaching out to what may well be an outdated point of contact” would not satisfy the special diligence standard.⁸⁰ In short, the Commission has provided a plain, coherent, and unambiguous explanation as to what is required of respondents to exercise special diligence in maintaining a PSAP contact list.

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

No payment or gift to respondents has been or will be made in connection to this information collection.

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

Outage reports filed with the Commission pursuant to part 4 of its rules, and the information contained therein, are presumed to be confidential and are not routinely available for public inspection.⁸¹ These outage reports may discuss issues affecting national security and commercial competitiveness.⁸² The filings are shared with Participating Agencies consistent with the requirements set forth in Section 4.2 of the Commission’s rules. To protect the confidentiality of the NORS and DIRS information disclosed to these Participating Agencies, the Commission limited the access to only those agencies who complete the registration process and then limits by geographic area the reports available to each Participating Agency. The Commission also adopted safeguards to protect the data accessed by Participating Agencies from manipulation and from distribution to unauthorized recipients. Other persons seeking disclosure must follow the procedures delineated in 47 C.F.R. Sections 0.457 and 0.459 of the Commission's rules for requests for and disclosure of information.

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

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

12. Provide estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information. The statement should: indicate the number of respondents, frequency of response, 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.

Burden Estimate for Providers

Number of Respondents: The Commission estimates that 3,124 providers (OSPs plus covered 911 service providers, and covered 988 service providers) will be required to submit information under its part 4 outage rules, which will include (1) filing outage reports in the FCC’s NORS, (2) providing outage notifications to 911 and 988 special facilities, and (3) obtaining and maintaining a list of the 911 and 988 special facilities they serve. This adjustment increases the number of respondents by approximately 2,159 from the last time this number was estimated for this collection.⁸³ There are also approximately 100 eligible Participating Agencies as discussed in the NORS-DIRS Information Sharing Order that are respondents for purposes of this information collection.⁸⁴ As a result, there are 3,224 total respondents to this collection.

Frequency of Response: The Commission estimates that 39,000 outages will be reported in NORS annually.⁸⁵ This is an upward adjustment from the previously reported 26,795 annual outage total. Our estimate of 39,000 outages is based on the incidence of outages that potentially affected 911 in NORS reports during 2021.⁸⁶ We estimate that each of those outages will require service providers to file in NORS and to notify potentially affected 911 special facilities and potentially affected 988 special facilities. This represents a 12,205 increase in the estimated number of responses transmitted annually.⁸⁷

Annual Hour Burden: Each of the 3,124 providers will spend time on each of these tasks as follows:

911 and 988 Outage Reporting in NORS: The existing information collection already approved by OMB includes three components: a Notification that an outage event has occurred, an Initial Report containing detailed information on the outage event and a Final Report containing detailed information on the outage event and how the event was resolved, except for VoIP providers that file Notifications and Final Reports only. The Commission has previously estimated that reporting entities will require 15 minutes to file a Notification with the Commission, and that the more detailed Initial Report (for non-interconnected VoIP service providers) will ordinarily not take more than 45 minutes to complete and submit to the Commission. The Commission further estimated that respondents will ordinarily not need more than one hour to complete and submit electronically a Final Report to the Commission within 30 days after the outage was discovered.⁸⁸

Thus, the total time needed to submit all filings pertinent to each outage that meets or exceeds the reporting threshold criteria has been estimated to be less than two (2) hours as follows:

15 minutes [Notification] + 45 minutes [Initial Report] + 1 hour [Final Report]

= 2 hours maximum for each outage * 39,000 outages = 78,000 hours annually.⁸⁹

This represents an upward adjustment of 24,410 hours because of the increased number of outages annually.⁹⁰

The Commission believes that the time estimates for completing the NORS Notification, Initial Report, and Final Report remain valid. Indeed, the Commission noted previously that the two-hour estimate was conservative, and that time required to file the information for each outage was, more likely estimated to be approximately 1 to 1.5 hours. The Commission assumes that for purposes of this calculation that each outage event will require a submission of a Notification, an Initial Report, and a Final Report.

Outage Notification to 911 Special Facilities and 988 Special Facilities: Similar to filing an outage report in NORS, the Commission believes that OSPs, covered 911 service providers, and covered 988 service providers will spend a total of one hour notifying 911 and 988 special facilities of discovering an outage and then later providing a more detailed follow-up. The actual amount of time required may be substantially lower than our estimate because, among other things, some OSPs may have automated their PSAP outage notification processes.⁹¹ Using our estimate of 39,000 outages annually, we project the total annual hourly burden for this notification and follow-up to be:

(1 hour [Initial Notification + follow-up] * 39,000 outages potentially affecting 911 special facilities) + (1 hour [Initial Notification + follow-up] * 39,000 outages potentially affecting 988 special facilities) = 78,000 hours annually⁹²

Maintaining a List of 911 Special Facilities and 988 Special Facilities: We estimate that each of the 3,124 providers will spend two hours annually (for a total of 6,248 hours annually) identifying 911 special facilities that could potentially be affected by a service outage.⁹³ We do not expect any costs to be incurred related to identifying the 988 special facilities as we require the same three identified 988 special facilities to be notified regardless of the geographic area affected by the outage.⁹⁴

We estimate the total annual cost of obtaining and maintaining up-to-date PSAP contact information across the United States by all carriers would be approximately $8.42 million (representing 233,765 annual hours in aggregate), including $3.52 million for wireless providers, $4.8 million for switched access, cable, and interconnected VoIP providers, and $102,120 for satellite providers.⁹⁵ We calculate this cost as the product of (1) the cost to a single OSP or covered 911 service provider for obtaining and maintaining up-to-date contact information for a single PSAP; and (2) our estimate of the total number of PSAPs in the service areas of each individual OSP and covered 911 service provider, summed across providers. To calculate the cost of obtaining and maintaining up-to-date contact information for a single PSAP, we use estimates provided by AT&T as their annual estimated cost of compliance for this requirement. AT&T reports that personnel spend on “average 20 hours per week for approximately 46 weeks per year validating, updating and maintaining” PSAP contact information.⁹⁶ Therefore, we find that a covered 911 service provider or OSP that must obtain and maintain updated PSAP contact information for all 5,748 primary and secondary PSAPs in the country would spend 920 hours at an annual cost of $34,040.⁹⁷ Since AT&T is a nationwide carrier, AT&T’s estimate of the total cost is premised on its need to contact all 5,748 primary and secondary PSAPs in the U.S.; thus, we divide AT&T’s annual cost by 5,748 to arrive at a per-PSAP annual cost of $6 and a per-PSAP annual burden of 10 minutes.⁹⁸

To estimate the number of PSAPs served by all individual covered 911 service providers and OSPs, we use disaggregated provider data for wireless, wireline, cable, interconnected Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and satellite communications providers. For facilities-based wireless service providers, as well as for switched access (wireline), cable, and interconnected VoIP providers, we rely on Form 477 and/or information from the Broadband Data Collection.⁹⁹ For wireless Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), we rely on Form 499 data concerning the states that each MVNO serves.¹⁰⁰ For satellite providers, we rely on information from the Broadband Data Collection.¹⁰¹

Wireless Calculation. We calculate the cost to wireless providers separately from facilities-based providers and MVNOs. For the three nationwide facilities-based providers, we assume that the annual cost to obtain and maintain up-to-date PSAP contact information is the same as for AT&T [$34,040 over 920 hours]. We assume that the remaining facilities-based providers collectively must maintain contact information for the full national set of 5,748 PSAPs.¹⁰² This results in an estimated combined cost of $136,160 [= $34,040 × 4] and estimated combined burden of 3,680 hours [= 920 hours × 4]. For MVNOs, we first calculate the number of PSAPs that each MVNO would need to reach to obtain and maintain contact information. We calculate this by summing state-level PSAP counts across all states in which an individual MVNO reports providing service based on Form 499.¹⁰³ In doing so, we assume that if an MVNO reports providing service in a state, then it must reach out to all PSAPs in that state.¹⁰⁴ Following this methodology, we estimate that MVNOs would make 563,944 contacts with PSAPs, leading to a cost of $3.38 million [563,944 contacts × $6 per contact].¹⁰⁵ The overall estimated cost for wireless providers would therefore be approximately $3.52 million [=$3.38 million + $136,160]. The overall estimated burden is 93,991 [563,944 contacts × 10 minutes per contact / 60 minutes per hour].

Switched Access (Wireline), Cable, and Interconnected VoIP Calculation. To calculate costs for this category, we rely on county-level data on the number of providers per county. We calculate costs by first estimating the number of PSAPs in each county, and then multiplying this by the number of providers in that county.¹⁰⁶ We conservatively assume that every provider in a county serves the entire county, and would therefore be required to contact all PSAPs in that county. In doing so, we likely overestimate the costs of obtaining and maintaining contact information.¹⁰⁷ Conversely, while in principle, our approach could understate costs if voice providers serving different counties each needed to maintain the information of PSAPs serving these counties, we find that we are more likely to overestimate than to underestimate costs.¹⁰⁸ Multiplying the PSAP-provider product by the per-PSAP cost and adding across counties, we estimate a combined cost of $4.8 million for all providers of switched access, cable, and interconnected VoIP. Using this methodology, we estimate a combined annual burden of 133,334 hours.

Satellite Calculation. Our analysis of information from the Broadband Data Collection indicates that there are three nationwide satellite communications providers. Assuming that each of these providers needs to obtain and maintain contact information for all PSAPs nationwide, we estimate an annual cost of $102,120 [= $34,040 × 3].¹⁰⁹ We also estimate an annual hourly burden of 2,760 hours [= 920 hours × 3].

As discussed above, we believe that OSPs and covered 911 service providers across the country actually would incur annual costs that are substantially less than the estimated cost calculated using the methodology described above ($8.42 million). But, even if this cost estimate were accurate, we believe it is far exceeded by the benefits of ensuring that PSAPs receive timely information about outages in their jurisdictions that threaten residents’ ability to reach 911.¹¹⁰

We also estimate that each provider will spend no more than 15 minutes annually (for a total of 781 hours annually) updating 988 special facility contact information from the email surveys they receive from the three 988 special facilities identified by the Commission.¹¹¹

Total Annual Hourly Burden for Providers: We calculate the sum of the annual hourly burden as follows:

911 and 988 Outage Reporting in NORS – 78,000 hours.

Outage Notification to 911 and 988 Special Facilities – 78,000 hours.

Maintaining a List of PSAPs and their contact information – 240,013 hours [6,248 + 3,680 + 93,991 + 133,334 + 2,760].

Maintaining a List of 988 Special Facilities and their contact information – 781 hours.

Adding all the components, we estimate the total annual burden for providers to be 396,794 hours.

In-House, Recurring Cost: We estimate that the task of reporting outages in NORS can be accomplished by a miscellaneous media and communications worker at a wage of $43 per hour multiplied by 78,000 hours yielding a total annual cost of $3,354,000.¹¹²

We estimate that the task of providing outage notification to 911 and 988 special facilities can be accomplished by a communications equipment operator at a wage of $34 per hour multiplied by 78,000 hours yielding a total annual cost of $2,652,000.¹¹³

We estimate that the task of identifying 911 special facilities that could potentially be affected by a service outage can be accomplished by a miscellaneous media and communication worker at a wage of $34 per hour multiplied by 6,248 hours yielding a total annual cost of $212,432.¹¹⁴ We estimate that the task of maintaining a list of the 911 special facilities served by a provider will annually cost $8.42 million, as calculated above. We estimate that the task of soliciting appropriate contact information for 988 outage notification from 988 special facilities can be accomplished by a communications equipment operator at a wage of $36 per hour multiplied by 0.25 hours yielding a total annual cost of $28,116.¹¹⁵

These calculations yield an estimated annual in-house cost to providers for complying with this information collection of $3,354,000+ $2,652,000+ $8,420,000 + $212,432 + $28,116= $14,666,548.

One-Time Costs:

The Commission did not estimate any one-time costs as being associated with its requirement to file outage reports in NORS.

The Commission estimates only minimal one-time implementation costs for OSPs, covered 911 service providers, and covered 988 service providers to comply with the new and modified notification obligations. There will be an estimated one-time cost of $106,216 for a communications equipment operator to update the provider’s 911 special facility outage notification template to conform with the requirements in the 2022 Second Report and Order.¹¹⁶ For providers to create the email survey to elicit contact information from the PSAPs they serve, there will be an additional one-time cost of $53,108.¹¹⁷ The Commission estimates that the rules adopted requiring the notifying of 988 special facilities about outages will result in an industry-wide one-time compliance cost of $56,232 to create an e-mail survey to biannually solicit 988 special facility contact information.¹¹⁸

Method of Calculating Burden: The Commission explains above the calculation method to determine the impact on reporting burdens associated with the estimated responses expected.

Variance in Burden: While the burden will be shared widely among entities that are subject to Part 4, we believe larger entities will continue to be more likely than smaller ones to experience outages of sufficient scale to trigger reporting and 911 and 988 special facility notification obligations.

Burden Estimate for Participating Agencies

Number of Respondents: The Commission estimates that there will be approximately 100 state, federal, and Tribal Nation agencies that will request access to NORS information as Participating Agencies and be subject to the requirements of the information sharing framework.

Frequency of Response: The initial request to access NORS information that must be filed electronically and reviewed by the FCC need only be filed once. Annually thereafter, Participating Agencies are required to certify to their continued compliance with the requirements for participation in the Commission’s information sharing program. The Commission is unable to quantify the number of times that Participating Agencies would need to provide a notification to the Commission, as they would vary based on each agency’s particular circumstances (e.g., the number of requests or changes in law that would necessitate notifications, number of data breaches). However, the number of notifications to be made annually per respondent is expected to be very low (i.e., less than five per respondent).

Annual Hour Burden: The Commission estimates that each Participating Agency will spend 5 hours preparing, reviewing, and submitting its initial request for NORS access to the FCC and a similar amount of time annually to re-certify their qualifications to access NORS in every year thereafter. We further anticipate that Participating Agencies will require an average of 15 minutes to prepare and submit a required notification to the Commission, for an annual average total of 6.25 hours of notifications per respondent.

Annual In-House Cost: As the Commission noted in the Second Report and Order, it cannot quantify overall costs to Participating Agencies for implementing the information sharing framework, which would vary based on each participating agency’s particular circumstances, including the number of requests or changes in law that would necessitate notifications.¹¹⁹ However, the Commission’s best current estimate is that the in-house cost to Participating Agencies for the information collection elements described above would be based on the salary of the equivalent of an attorney (GS-13 Step 5) working 6.25 hours annually to submit its annual certification form and make any required notifications to the Commission.¹²⁰ With 100 Participating Agencies spending 6.25 hours to complete the necessary annual requirements at a wage of $64.06 per hour, the Commission estimates an in-house cost of $40,037.50 annually.

100 Participating Agencies x 6.25 hours x $64.06 = $40,037.50 annually

The Commission estimates that maintaining copies of all training material for Commission inspection upon request will require one hour of staff time annually; implementing the necessary records to ensure practical data protection will require five hours of staff time annually; and maintaining and making available for FCC inspection a list of all localities for which the agency has disclosed NORS data will require three hours of staff time annually. With 100 Participating Agencies spending 9 hours to complete the necessary annual recordkeeping requirements at a wage of $64.06 per hour (based on the salary of the equivalent of an attorney (GS-13 Step 5)), the Commission estimates a recordkeeping cost of $57,654 annually.

100 Participating Agencies x 9 hours x $64.06 = $57,654 annual cost

The Commission notes that the information sharing framework established in the Second Report and Order allows for access to be granted not only for NORS, but also to the Commission’s Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS). We note that the process and requirements for Participating Agencies under this framework are identical, regardless of whether they seek access to NORS, DIRS, or both. Because the Commission anticipates that NORS and DIRS access will be requested together in most cases, it believes that the estimated costs for Participating Agencies associated with DIRS access are fully included in the estimates.

Method of Calculating Burden: The Commission explains above the calculation method to determine the impact on reporting burdens associated with the estimated responses expected for Participating Agencies.

Summary of Respondents and Burden:

Total Number of Respondents: 3,224 total respondents, which is 3,124 providers + 100 Participating Agencies.

Total Number of Annual Responses: 201,848, which is 117,000 + 78,000 + 3,124 + 3,124 +600.¹²¹

Total Annual Burden Hours: 398,319, which is 78,000 + 78,000 + 240,013 + 781 + 1,525.¹²²

Total Annual In-House Costs: $3,354,000 + $2,652,000 + $8,420,000 + $212,432 + $28,116 + $92,765.75 = $14,759,313.75.

Total One-Time Costs: $53,108 + $56,232 = $109,340

13. Provide estimate for 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).

The Commission estimates no purchases of additional equipment, or operation, maintenance or new services will result from these modifications to the existing Part 4 information collection.

14. 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.

The Commission estimates that the total annual cost to the Federal Government to be as follows, based on the salaries¹²³ of four engineers (GS-15 step 5), three engineers (GS-14 step 5), two IT Developer (GS-15 step 5), each spending approximately ½ (or 1,040 hours) of their work time each year on the information collected, and three attorneys (GS-13 step 5) spending approximately ¼ (or 520 hours) of their work time each year on the information collection:

(Four) Engineers	GS-15 step 5	At $89.04/hour wage	$89.04 x 1,040 hours	x 4	= $370,406.40
(Three) Engineers	GS-14 step 5	At $75.70/hour wage	$75.70 x 1,040 hours	x 3	= $236,184.00
(Two) IT Developers	GS-15 step 5	At $89.04/hour wage	$89.04 x 1,040 hours	x 2	= $185,203.20
(Three) Attorneys	GS-13 step 5	At $64.06/hour wage	$64.06 x 520 hours	x 3	= $ 99,933.60
TOTAL					= $891,727.20

Total Annual Cost to the Federal Government: $891,727.20

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments for this information collection.

The Commission is reporting program changes and adjustments to this revised information collection.

There are program changes to the total number of annual hours for this collection due to (1) an increase in the number of respondents subject to this collection (from 1,065 respondents to 3,224 respondents);¹²⁴ and (2) additional burdens placed on respondents by the 2022 Second Report and Order and by the 2023 Report and Order, (from 54,215 burden hours to 398,319 burden hours).

In addition, there are upward adjustments to the number of annual responses for this collection. There is an increase in the number of outages estimated to occur annually, which in turn increases the estimated number of annual responses. There is also an upward adjustment to the estimated number of responses resulting from a change to the approach by which the number of responses are calculated (instead of counting all NORS filings per outage per provider as a single report, we now calculate each of the three filed NORS reports as separate responses, resulting in an increase from 27,395 total annual responses to 201,848 total annual responses).

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

The FCC does not plan to publish this information. The Commission may analyze the information contained in the filings, aggregate and anonymize the information, and present to trade associations and companies individually, the agency’s analysis based on the information. For example, the Commission may present its findings on a quarterly basis to the Network Reliability Steering Committee of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions.

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

The Commission does not intend to seek approval not to display the expiration date of the revisions to this information collection.

18. Explain any exceptions to the Certification Statement identified in Item 19, “Certification of Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.”

The Commission is reporting an exception the Certification Statement. When the 60-day notice was published in the Federal Register on November 8, 2023, (89 FR 77093), we reported the total annual burden hours as 170,802. Due to the recalculation of the total annual burden hours, we are reporting the total annual burden hours as 398,319 which is reflected in this submission to OMB.

There are no other exceptions to the Certification Statement.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods:

The revisions to this information collection do not employ any statistical methods.

1 See Amendments to Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications; Improving 911 Reliability, New Part 4 of Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, PS Docket Nos. 15-80 and 13-75, ET Docket No. 04-35, Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd 13847 (2022) (2022 Second Report and Order).

2 Ensuring the Reliability and Resiliency of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline; Amendments to Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications; Implementation of the National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act of 2018, PS Docket Nos. 23-5 and 15-80, WC Docket No. 18-336, Report and Order, FCC 23-57 (rel. July 21, 2023) (2023 Report and Order).

3 47 CFR § 4.9(a)(4), (c)(2)(iv), (e)(1)(v), (f)(4), (g)(1)(i), (h); 47 CFR § 4.5(e). Covered 911 service providers are providers that deliver traffic to 911 special facilities, including PSAPs. See 47 CFR § 9.19(a)(4). OSPs are cable, satellite, wireless, wireline, and interconnected Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers that handle other aspects of 911 call processing. See 2022 Second Report and Order at 2, para. 2.

4 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13853, para. 10.

5 ATIS-0100019(2022-01), Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC) Emergency Preparedness and Response Checklist, Rev. 1 (Feb. 14, 2022), https://access.atis.org/higherlogic/ws/public/document?document_id=64019&_gl=1*1xet9a2*_ga*NzI0NzU3NjMwLjE3MjMwNDkxNjY.*_ga_NPRTRNGSKC*MTcyMzA0OTE2Ni4xLjEuMTcyMzA0OTIzOC4wLjAuMA.

6 Id. at 11-12, paras. 17-18. Previously, only notification by telephone was required by OSPs.

7 Id. at 12, para. 19.

8 Id. at 14, para. 23.

9 “Special diligence” is the diligence expected from a person practicing in a particular field of specialty under circumstances like those at issue (Black’s Law Dictionary (11^th ed., 2019)).

10 The 2022 Second Report and Order also codified a rule change that exempts wireless and satellite providers from reporting outages to all special offices and facilities, which are entities enrolled in the Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) Program at priority Levels 1 and 2. See 47 CFR § 4.5(b) (defining “special offices and facilities” to include major military installations, key government facilities, nuclear power plants, and those airports that are listed as current primary (PR) airports in the FAA’s National Plan of Integrated Airports Systems.) This change is based on the Commission’s observation that special offices and facilities had not adopted wireless or satellite service for their critical communications, instead, relying heavily on wireline communications. The predicted reduction in burden as a result of this change was factored into an earlier filed Supporting Statement to this collection. See Supporting Statement in OMB No. 3060-0484, filed November 2016, p. 8-9.

11 2023 Report and Order at 6-13, paras.12-22.

12 Id. at 11, para. 18.

13 Id. at 13-23, paras. 23-40.

14 Id. at 22, para. 38.

15 See 47 CFR § 4.5. Communications service providers required to report outages to Commission using NORS include the following: cable, SS7, Interexchange Carrier (IXC) or Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) tandem facilities, satellite, wireless, wireline and interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers (Communications Providers). See 47 CFR §§ 4.3; 4.9 (describing the outage reporting requirements for communications service providers). See also New Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, ET Docket No. 04-35, Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 19 FCC Rcd 16830 (2004) (2004 Part 4 Report and Order).

16 Since 1992, the Commission has required telecommunications carriers (other than cellular and satellite providers) to report significant disruptions to voice and paging communications services. See former 47 C.F.R. Section 63.100 (2003) (first adopted in 1992). See Notification by Common Carriers of Service Disruptions, CC Docket No. 91-273, Report and Order, 7 FCC Rcd 2010 (1992); Amendment Of Part 63 Of The Commission's Rules To Provide For Notification By Common Carriers Of Service Disruptions, CC Docket No. 91-273, Memorandum Opinion and Order and Further Report and Order of Proposed Rulemaking, 8 FCC Rcd 8517 (1993); Amendment Of Part 63 Of The Commission's Rules To Provide For Notification By Common Carriers Of Service Disruptions, CC Docket No. 91-273, Second Report and Order, 9 FCC Rcd 3911 (1994); Amendment Of Part 63 Of The Commission's Rules To Provide For Notification By Common Carriers Of Service Disruptions, CC Docket No. 91-273, Order on Reconsideration, 10 FCC Rcd 11764 (1995).

17 See generally 2004 Part 4 Report and Order.

18 See Proposed Extension of Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Regarding Outage Reporting to Interconnected Voice Over Internet Protocol Service Providers and Broadband Internet Service Providers, PS Docket No. 11-82, Report and Order, 27 FCC Rcd 2650 (2012).

19 See Improving 911 Reliability; Reliability and Continuity of Communications Networks, Including Broadband Technologies, PS Docket Nos. 13-75, 11-60, Report and Order, 28 FCC Rcd 17476, para. 140 (2013).

20 See Amendments to Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, et.al., PS Docket Nos. 15-80, et.al., Report and Order, Order on Reconsideration, and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 31 FCC Rcd 5817 (2016) (2016 Part 4 Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration).

21 New Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, ET Docket No. 04-35, Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 69 FR 70316 (Aug. 19, 2004). See Office of Management and Budget Notice of Action, Dec. 21, 2004 (OMB Control Number 3060-0484, OMB action date of Nov. 12, 2004, and ICR Number 200411-3060-006.)

22 Federal Communication Commission, “Network Outage Reporting System User Manual,” version 3 (2018) https://www.fcc.gov/file/12265/download.

23 See Amendments to Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, PS Docket No. 15-80, Second Report and Order, 36 FCC Rcd 6136 (2021) (NORS-DIRS Information Sharing Order). See Office of Management and Budge Notice of Action, Aug. 15, 2022 (OMB Control Number 3060-0484, OMB action date of June 21, 2022; ICR Number 202206-3060-012).

24 The Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) was established as a means for service providers to voluntarily report the status of their infrastructure to the Commission when the system is activated by the Commission in times of crisis. These reports are also transmitted to the Commission electronically through a web-based portal and presumed confidential.

25 See 47 CFR § 4.2.

26 See 47 CFR § 4.11. See Federal Communications Commission, Network Outage Reporting System Portal, NORS 3.0 Login page, https://www.fcc.gov/licensing-databases/fcc-user-login (last visited Jun. 5, 2023). In the event of technical impediments to using the web-based system, written notifications, initial reports, or final reports may be submitted to the Commission by email, fax, courier, or U.S. mail. See 47 CFR § 4.11; 2004 Part 4 Report and Order, 19 FCC Rcd at 16871-72, para. 75.

27 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13853. The 2023 Report and Order adopted the same means of reporting for notifying 988 special facilities. 2023 Report and Order at 19, para. 33.

28 See 2023 Report and Order at 10, para. 17.

29 Part 4 Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration, 31 FCC Rcd at 5920, Appendix D, para. 18.

30 2022 Second Report and Order 37 FCC Rcd at 13881, Appendix B, para. 24; 2023 Report and Order at 46, Appendix B, para. 28.

31 See Amendments to Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications; Improving 911 Reliability, New Part 4 of Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, PS Docket Nos. 15-80 and 13-75, ET Docket No. 04-35, Order on Reconsideration, FCC 24-73, para. 20 (2024) (2024 Order on Reconsideration).

32 47 U.S.C. § 151.

33 47 U.S.C. § 251(e)(3).

34 47 U.S.C. § 251(e)(4).

35 Intrado Life & Safety, Inc. Comments (Jan. 8, 2024) (Intrado Comments).

36 ACA Connects – America’s Communications Association (ACA Connects), Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), CTIA, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association (NCTA), and USTelecom – The Broadband Association (USTelecom), comments (Jan. 8, 2024) (Associations Comments).

37 Associations Comments at 6; Intrado Comments at 13.

38 See Amendments to Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications; Improving 911 Reliability, New Part 4 of Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, PS Docket Nos. 15-80 and 13-75, ET Docket No. 04-35, Order on Reconsideration, FCC 24-73 (2024) (2024 Order on Reconsideration).

39 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13860, para. 22.

40 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13858, para. 19.

41 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 5, para 10, citing 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13858, para. 19.

42 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13859, para. 21 (addressing comments by Lumen and CTIA asking for the 30-minute deadline to start notification, not complete it).

43 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 5, para. 10.

44 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 6, para. 12.

45 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13858.

46 Id.

47 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 8, para. 17.

48 Associations Comments at 6-8; Intrado Comments at 9.

49 44 U.S.C. § 3506(c)(1)(A)(iv); 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8(a)(4).

50 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13865, para. 36, n.114.

51 Amendments to Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications; Improving 911 Reliability, New Part 4 of Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications, PS Docket Nos. 15-80 and 13-75, ET Docket No. 04-35, Third Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 21-45, 36 FCC Rcd 7860, 7884, para., 56, n.121-122 (2021) (Third Notice).

52 See infra at p. 15.

53 Associations Comments at 7.

54 See 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 8-9, para. 17.

55 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 8, para. 17.

56 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13860, n.86. The Commission has noted that some PSAPs have begun to raise complaints about over-notification, even before this information collection has gone into effect. The Commission believes that these complaints suggest that some providers have chosen to implement the rule in an overinclusive and uncoordinated manner and notes that nothing precludes providers from working together to establish more coordinated and efficient outage notification processes that reduce the likelihood of unnecessary notifications. 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 8-9, para. 17.

57 Intrado Comments at 9.

58 Intrado Comments at 10-11.

59 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13850, para. 4; 47 CFR § 4.9(a)(4), (c)(2)(iv), (e)(1)(v), (f)(4), (g)(1)(i), (h).

60 To the extent that those providers rely on third party vendors to support those capabilities, the Commission has emphasized that it has and will continue to hold service providers accountable for compliance with their notification obligations, even if they rely upon third-party service providers. 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13854, para. 13.

61 Intrado Comments at 3-8.

62 See Third Notice, 36 FCC Rcd at 7884-85, n.118 and 123. Contrary to Intrado’s assertions, this wage estimate includes an addition of approximately 50% of compensation to account for benefits. Id. at 7884, n.118.

63 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13864-65, 13882-83, para. 36, Appx. B. at para. 26, n. 106.

64 Intrado Comments at 4-5.

65 Id. at 13864-65, para. 36 (estimating maintaining and updating 911 special facility contact information as an annually recurring cost); 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 12-17, paras. 29-37 (estimating maintaining and updating 911 special facility contact information as an annually recurring cost). Intrado also fails to consider that the Commission’s rules already require OSPs to contact PSAPs when certain outages occur, which means that OSPs should already have PSAP contact information. 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 10, para 23. See also 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13851-52, para. 8 (agreeing with APCO that “service providers possess the necessary resources, are already required under Commission rules to notify [911 special facilities] of outages, and already maintain their own databases for contacting [911 special facilities]”).

66 Intrado Comments at 5.

67 Compare 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13864, para. 36 (citing to Third Notice, 36 FCC Rcd at 7884, para. 56, n. 118 (estimating that for each of 2,890 providers, one worker earning $34/hour would spend 0.5 hour for a total of $50,000 [$34/hour x 0.5 hour x 2,890 = 49,130, rounded up to $50,000])) with 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13882, Appx B, para. 26, n.104 (estimating $50,000 consisting of the hourly rate of $34 multiplied by 0.5 multiplied by 2,890, which yields $49,130). We note that $99,000 in one-time costs associated with updating PSAP notification templates are also reflected in both the Second Report and Order and the Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis.

68 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 12-17, paras. 29-37 (revising the cost estimate from $197,000 annually to $8.42 million).

69 Associations Comments at 4-5. See also Intrado Comments at 8 (describing AT&T’s cost estimates).

70 See Intrado Comments at 6-7.

71 Intrado Comments at 11-12.

72 Intrado Comments at 11-12.

73 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13852, n.26.

74 Id.

75 See 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 10, para. 23 (stating that “this compliance obligation can be readily met by other means, including by the service providers developing their own database capabilities rather than waiting for the Commission to do so”).

76 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 10, para 23. See also 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13851-52, para. 8 (agreeing with APCO that “service providers possess the necessary resources, are already required under Commission rules to notify [911 special facilities] of outages, and already maintain their own databases for contacting [911 special facilities]”).

77 See 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13852.

78 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 11-12, para. 26.

79 Id.

80 Id. (citing 2022 Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13852, para. 9).

81 See 47 CFR § 4.2.

82 2021 Second Report and Order at 6137, para. 2.

83 See Supporting Statement in OMB No. 3060-0484, filed June 2022, p. 11 (reporting 965 provider-respondents). We now estimate the numbers of providers subject to this information collection to be 3,124, an increase of 2,159 providers. This consists of four satellite providers, 947 wireline providers, 423 wireless providers, and 1,750 interconnected VoIP-related entities. Our satellite figure consists only of those service providers that offer service that could potentially affect 911. See generally Revision of the Commission’s Rules to Ensure Compatibility with Enhanced 911 Emergency Calling Systems, CC Docket No. 94-102 (including five satellite providers’ 911 Post-Implementation Status Report filings in the Commission’s Electronic Comment Filing System regarding the deployment of 911 call center service and the forwarding of 911 calls to PSAPs). Our wireless figure is calculated based on staff analysis of 2022 Form 499 data, consisting of holding companies and affiliated entities who report end-user mobile telecommunication revenue. See Wireline Competition Bureau Releases the 2020 Telecommunications Reporting Worksheets and Accompanying Instructions, WC Docket No. 06-122, Public Notice, 35 FCC Rcd 1350 (2020). Our wireline and interconnected VoIP-related figures are sourced from the June 2021 Voice Telephone Services Report. See also FCC, Voice Telephone Services Report, https://www.fcc.gov/voice-telephone-services-report (last visited Aug. 7, 2024). Because cable providers generally rely on either (wireline) switched access or interconnected VoIP to provide 911-related and 988-related services, these providers are already subsumed by our other estimates.

84 NORS-DIRS Information Sharing Order, 36 FCC Rcd at 6143; see also 2023 Report and Order at 12, para. 22 (allowing direct read-only access to NORS data by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).)

85 See 2023 Report and Order at 16, note 82.

86 Id.

87 In the Supporting Statement in OMB No. 3060-0484, filed June 2022, we estimated a total of 26,895 responses, plus an additional 100 annual responses from Participating Agencies.

88 The Commission estimates that when a 988 outage occurs, service providers are already submitting outage reports in NORS related to other aspects of their operations, so initial compliance costs would be negligible. To the extent that there are 988 outages that are not already being submitted in NORS, we expect that those would be outages experienced by covered 988 service providers who are responsible for receiving, processing, or forwarding 988 calls. We assume that one covered 988 service provider experiences a maximum of one reportable outage per month and we estimate an annual compliance cost for that one covered 988 service provider of $1,000. 2023 Report and Order at 27, para. 42. To simplify the analysis provided in this supporting statement, we subsume this very small burden into the considerably larger burden for the total number of outages reports that would be filed annually.

89 Ensuring the Reliability and Resiliency of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline; Amendments to Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications; Implementation of the National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act of 2018, PS Docket Nos. 23-5 and 15-80, WC Docket No. 18-336, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 23-7 (rel. Jan. 27, 2023) (2023 Notice) at 15, notes 80 and 82.

90 We are reporting an upward adjustment of 12,205 additional outages annually with a burden of 2 hours per outage = an upward adjustment of 24,410 burden hours for providers.

91 See 2022 Second Report and Order, Appendix B at 35, para. 25; 2023 Report and Order at 12 para. 21.

92 2022 Second Report and Order at 18-19, n.114 (finding that a communications equipment operator would spend a total of one hour per outage to send out two notifications for each of an estimated 37,000 outages); 2023 Report and Order at 16, note 82. (finding that a communications equipment operator would spend a total of one hour per outage to send out two notifications for each of an estimated 39,000 outages based on the incidence of outages that potentially affected 911 in NORS reports during 2021).

93 2022 Second Report and Order at 18, para. 36. See also Third Notice, 36 FCC Rcd at 7884, n.122 (estimating that for each of the 2,890 affected carriers, one worker would annually spend at most two hours updating PSAP identification).

94 2023 Report and Order at 28, para. 43.

95 See 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 12-17, paras. 29-37.

96 See CCA Petition at 12 (quoting AT&T Comments on Third NPRM at 14).

97 We assume that a communications equipment operator, earning $37/hour (including benefits), would perform this task. Therefore, the annual cost of updating the contact information for all PSAPs in the nation would be $34,040 [$37/hour × 20 hours × 46 weeks]. We use the job category of “Communications Equipment Operators, All Other” in this estimate to avoid under-estimating labor costs for tasks that are likely performed by lower-paid workers. See Economic News Release, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Employment and Wage Data from the Occupational Employment Statistics Survey by Occupation, May 2022 (May 2022) https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm. We begin with the average hourly wage [$24.11] and multiply by 1.45 to account for benefits and by 105.5% for inflation adjustment between 2022 and 2023, then round up to $37.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of June 2023, civilian wages and salaries averaged $29.86/hour and benefits averaged $13.39/hour. Total compensation therefore averaged $29.86 + $13.39, rounded to $43.26. See Press Release, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation—June 2023 (Sept. 12, 2023), https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecec.pdf. Using these figures, benefits constitute a markup of $13.39/$29.86 ~ 45% (Compensation Benefit Mark-up). We therefore markup wages by 45% to account for benefits. The 105.5% multiplier represents our adjustment for inflation. See Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private (CES0500000003), https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES0500000003 (last visited Feb. 7, 2024) (Inflation Adjustment) (showing that according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the average hourly private wage increased by 5.5% between May 2022 and August 2023).

98 The annual per-PSAP cost for an individual provider is estimated to be $6 [$34,040 per year / 5,748 PSAPs ~ $5.92, rounding up to $6]. See Second Report and Order, 37 FCC Rcd at 13848, para. 1 (“approximately 5,748 primary and secondary Public Safety Answering Points”). This results in a per-PSAP annual burden of 10 minutes [$5.92 per PSAP / $37 per hour = 0.16 hours per PSAP = 10 minutes per PSAP].

99 With respect to facilities-based wireless service providers, see FCC, Mobile Deployment Form 477 Data (updated Dec. 30, 2022), https://www.fcc.gov/mobile-deployment-form-477-data. For switched access (wireline), cable, and interconnected VoIP, staff calculation are based on Form 477 filings certified as of July 24, 2023 and Broadband Data Collection filings certified as of August 4, 2023.

100 See FCC, Form 499 Filer Database (updated Sept. 20, 2023), https://apps.fcc.gov/cgb/form499/499a.cfm.

101 See FCC, Broadband Data Collection (updated July 25, 2023), https://www.fcc.gov/BroadbandData.

102 Staff analysis of Form 477 data suggests that when there is a fourth non-nationwide wireless provider in any particular location, it is usually the only one. See FCC, Mobile Deployment Form 477 Data (Jul. 29, 2022), https://www.fcc.gov/mobile-deployment-form-477-data.

103 For each provider in the Form 499 Filer Database, Columns 61-119 identify each state for which that provider reports providing service. See FCC, Form 499 Filer Database (updated Sept. 20, 2023), https://apps.fcc.gov/cgb/form499/499a.cfm. Staff analysis suggests that there are 333 operational MVNOs nationwide. To arrive at this figure, we restricted Form 499 data to filers who reported end-user mobile revenue for CY 2022. We further restricted this data by removing all facilities-based providers using Form 477 data.

104 Assuming that an MVNO’s presence in a state implies state-wide service is a conservative assumption that is likely to overstate costs. In reality, many MVNOs will only be required to contact the PSAPs located in their service areas, leading to lower costs than what we calculate here.

105 To obtain our estimate of 563,944, we multiply the number of MVNOs by the number PSAPs in the state, then sum over instances of contacts with PSAPs across states.

106 Because PSAP counts are available at the level of a state, we disaggregate PSAP counts to the level of a county using population-based weighting. This is a reasonable assumption, as more populated counties are likely to receive more 9-1-1 calls which will require more PSAPs. Staff constructed population-based weights for each county by dividing the population of that county by the total state population. See U.S. Census Bureau, County Population Totals and Components of Change: 2020-2022, (Jun. 23, 2023), https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-counties-total.html.

107 The average number of unduplicated voice providers of cable, switched access and interconnected VoIP service in a county is approximately 50. Because, in reality, providers are likely to contact only the PSAPs which operate in their area of service, which may not necessarily span the entire county, our assumption leads to an overestimate of the number of PSAPs that providers, on average, need to reach to obtain contact information. For comparison, the average number of unduplicated voice providers of cable, switched access and interconnected VoIP service in a census tract is approximately 16, which tells us that most providers do not serve the entire county.

108 For instance, suppose that there are two equally populated counties, each receiving service from a provider that serves one county in its entirety but not the other and consider the following two scenarios. Scenario (1): there are two PSAPS and each PSAP covers one county, but not the other, so that each service provider needs to update information for a single PSAP. Scenario (2): both PSAPs cover parts of each county, so that both service providers need to update information for both PSAPs, which doubles the cost. Our population weighing procedure leads to a cost estimate equivalent to the cost in scenario (1), and therefore underestimates costs in scenario (2). However, on average, each county contains approximately 1.8 PSAPs, so that it is more likely that counties contain individual PSAPs than not. Moreover, because the average number of unduplicated voice providers in any part of a county is well below the average number of providers serving the county, contrary to our estimates, many service providers in any county do not need to update contact information for every PSAP in that county.

109 We do not include Big Bend Telephone, a local wireline provider that also reports satellite connections largely overlapping its wireline territory in our satellite calculations, because its costs are already accounted for in our joint calculations for switched access, cable, and interconnected VoIP providers.

110 2024 Order on Reconsideration at 16-17, paras. 36-37.

111 2023 Report and Order at 17, note 83 (estimating that for each of the 3,124 providers, one worker, earning $36/hour, would spend at most 15 minutes each year to e-mail the survey of contact information to the three 988 special facilities, and to follow up with those special facilities if needed).

112 We estimate a maximum of two hours total time would be necessary to submit all of the required 988 outage reports to the Commission. We estimate that each notification would take 15 minutes to complete, each initial report would take a maximum of 45 minutes to complete, and each final report would take a maximum of one hour to complete. We assume a labor cost of $43 per hour for a miscellaneous media and communication worker who would likely be the type of employee responsible for preparing and submitting outage reports. See 2023 Notice at 15, para. 37, n.80; 2023 Report and Order at 23, para. 43, n.171. Our total cost estimate = $43/hr x 2 hrs/outage x 39,000 outages =$3,354,000.

113 2022 Second Report and Order at 18-19, para. 36 (finding that a communications equipment operator a communications equipment operator, earning $34/hour, would spend a total of one hour per outage to send out two notifications for each of an estimated 37,000 outages, for a total of $1,258,000 ($34/hour x 1 hour x 37,000)); 2023 Notice at 16, para. 38, n.82 (estimating that a communications equipment operator, earning $34/hour, would spend a total of 1 hour per outage to send out two notifications for each of an estimated 39,000 outages, for a total of $1,326,000 = $34/hour × 1 hour × 39,000); 2023 Report and Order at 24, para. 42, n.169. The estimated number of outages from the 2022 Second Report and Order have been updated to reflect the more recent data estimates from the 2023 Report and Order.

114 2022 Second Report and Order at 18, para. 36. See also Third Notice, 36 FCC Rcd at 7884, n.122 (estimating that for each of the 2,890 affected carriers, one worker earning $34/hour would annually spend at most two hours updating PSAP identification, for a total of $197,000 ($34/hour x 2 hours x 2,890 = $196,520, rounded up to $197,000)). The estimated number of affected carriers has been updated to reflect the more recent data estimates from the 2023 Report and Order.

115 See 2023 Notice at 16-17, para. 38, n.83 (estimating that for each of 3,124 providers, one worker earning $36/hour would spend ¼ hour for a total of approximately $28,116).

116 2022 Second Report and Order at 18, para. 36. See also Third Notice, 36 FCC Rcd at 7884, n.119 (estimating that for each of the 2,890 affected carriers, one worker, earning $34/hr, would spend at most one hour updating the template for a total of $99,000 ($34/hr x 1 hours x 2,890 = $98,260, rounded up to $99,000)). The calculated cost has been updated to reflect the more recent estimate of 3,124 carriers from the 2023 Report and Order.

117 2022 Second Report and Order at 18, para. 36. See also Third Notice, 36 FCC Rcd at 7884, n.118 (estimating that for each of 2,890 affected carriers, one worker, earning $34/hr, would spend at most 0.5 hours, for a total of $50,000 ($34/hr x 0.5 hours x 2,890 = $49,130, rounded up to $50,000)). The calculated cost has been updated to reflect the more recent estimate of 3,124 carriers from the 2023 Report and Order.

118 2023 Report and Order at 23-24, para. 43 n.170.

119 Second Report and Order, 36 FCC Rcd at 6152, para. 54.

120 Hourly rates are based on the OPM 2024 Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Locality Pay Area. Office of Personnel and Management, 2024 General Schedule (GS) Locality Pay Table, Salary Table 2024-DCB https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2024/DCB.pdf (last visited Aug. 7, 2024). We note that the hourly rate for an equivalent attorney is likely to be lower in the jurisdictions of many Participating Agencies.

121 This number is calculated as 39,000 outages x 3 reports filed in NORS (notification, initial, and final) for each outage [117,000 responses] + 39,000 outages x 2 notifications per outage to 911 and 988 special facilities [78,000 responses] + one response from each of the 3,124 providers determining which 911 and 988 special facilities could be potentially affected by an outage [3,124 responses] one response from each of the 3,124 providers maintaining the contact list for 911 special facilities [3,124 responses] + 1 certification and 5 notifications from each of the 100 Participating Agencies to the Commission [600 responses from Participating Agencies].

122 This number is calculated as 78,000 hours for reporting in NORS [2 hours/outage x 39,000 outages] + 39,000 for notifying 911 and 988 special facilities [2 x (1 hour/outage x 39,000 outages)] + 240,013 for maintaining the contact list for 911 special facilities + 781 for maintaining the contact list for 911 special facilities [0.25 hours/provider * 3,124 providers] + 1,525 for Participating Agencies [15.25 hours x 100 Participating Agencies].

123 Hourly rates are based on the OPM 2024 Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Locality Pay Area. Office of Personnel and Management, 2024 General Schedule (GS) Locality Pay Table, Salary Table 2024-DCB, https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2024/DCB.pdf (last visited Aug. 7, 2024).

124 See supra n.33.

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