AGENCY:

Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has received Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for the following public information collection pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. An agency may not conduct or sponsor a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number, and no person is required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid control number. Comments concerning the accuracy of the burden estimates and any suggestions for reducing the burden should be directed to the person listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Nicole Ongele, Nicole.Ongele@fcc.gov, (202) 418-2991.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

OMB Control Number: 3060-1222.

OMB Approval Date: January 28, 2020.

OMB Expiration Date: January 31, 2023.

Title: Inmate Calling Services, Annual Reporting, Certification, and Consumer Disclosure Requirements.

Form Number(s): FCC Form 2301(a) and FCC Form 2301(b).

Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities.

Number of Respondents and Responses: 20 respondents; 20 responses.

Estimated Time Per Response: 5 hours-80 hours.

Frequency of Response: Annual reporting and certification requirements; third party disclosure requirement.

Total Annual Burden: 2,000 hours.

Total Annual Cost: No cost.

Obligation to Respond: Mandatory. Statutory authority for this information collection is contained in 47 CFR 1, 4(i), 4(j), 201, 225, 276, and 303(r) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i), 154(j), 201, 225, 276, and 303(r).

Privacy Act Impact Assessment: No impact.

Nature and Extent of Confidentiality: The Commission anticipates treating as presumptively confidential any particular information identified as proprietary by providers of inmate calling services (ICS).

Needs and Uses: Section 201 of the Communications Act of 1934 Act, as amended (Act), 47 U.S.C. 201, requires that ICS providers' interstate and international rates and practices be just and reasonable. Section 276 of the Act, 47 U.S.C. 276, requires that payphone service providers (including ICS providers) be fairly compensated for completed calls.

In the Second Report and Order and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Second Report and Order), WC Docket No. 12-375, FCC 15-136, the Commission undertook comprehensive reform of the ICS rules. The Commission, among other things, established new rate caps for interstate and intrastate ICS calls and limited and capped ancillary service charges. To enable the Commission to ensure compliance with the rules adopted in the Second Report and Order and monitor the effectiveness of the ICS reforms, the Commission required all ICS providers to file annual reports providing data and other information on their ICS operations.

In particular, the Commission required each ICS provider to file a report annually specifying, for the prior calendar year: Interstate, international, and intrastate minutes of use by facility; and the name, size, and type of facility being served; fees for any ancillary services, the amount of these fees, and the number of times each fee was imposed; monthly site commission payments; rates and minutes of use for video calling services by facility, as well as ancillary fee charges for such services; the number of disability-related calls, problems associated with such calls, and ancillary fees charged in connection with such calls; and the number of complaints received related to, for example, dropped calls and poor call quality and the number of instances of each by TTY and TRS users. The annual reports ensure that the Commission has access to the information it needs to fulfill its regulatory duties, while minimizing the burden on ICS providers

The Commission required that an ICS provider certify annually the accuracy of the data and other information submitted in the provider's annual report and the provider's compliance with the Commission's ICS rates. Pursuant to the authority delegated to it by the Commission in the Second Report and Order, the Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) created standardized templates for the annual reports (FCC Form 2301(a)) and certifications (FCC Form 2301(b)). The Bureau provided instructions that explain the reporting and certification requirements and reduce the burden of the data collection. The Commission also required ICS providers to disclose to consumers their interstate, intrastate, and international rates and ancillary service charges.

On June 13, 2017, the D.C. Circuit vacated the video visitation requirements in the annual report. Pursuant to the D.C. Circuit's mandate and its delegated authority, the Bureau has removed the video visitation reporting requirements in the annual report and amended the instructions to reflect the removal of this requirement. As part of the Bureau's continued administration of the ICS data collection, the Bureau has modified the instructions for FCC Form 2301(a) and FCC Form 2301(b) in several additional respects. These changes make the instructions clearer and will make the annual reports easier to understand and analyze. The amended instructions require ICS providers to: Submit all reports using the electronic Excel template provided by the Bureau, and to provide the data in a machine-readable, manipulatable format; provide city and state information for each facility served; group the facilities served by underlying contracts in the section for ICS Rates; separately report and explain their rates for debit/prepaid calls and collect calls; report fixed site commission payments by facility as well as by contract; and explain certain entries, including any entry that omits requested information. These changes will impose only a minimal additional burden on providers because they address only information that providers usually and customarily compile in the normal course of their business activities. The information will help the Commission continue to analyze changes in the ICS industry, to monitor compliance with the ICS rules, and to enforce these rules.