The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
The Regulatory Mix will not be published May 25, 2015 in honor of Memorial Day
TELECOM
National Safety Council
The National Safety Council released new estimates of the percentage of cell phone-related crashes. The Council’s latest estimate is that cell phones were involved in 27% of all crashes. The estimate includes crashes involving drivers who are texting or talking on handheld or hands-free cell phones. The Council estimates that texting-related crashes jumped from 5% to 6% while crashes involving drivers talking on cell phones remained at 21%. This is the third consecutive year in which the annual estimate has increased.
FCC
The FCC has begun the process of obtaining Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for the new information collection contained in its Open Internet/Net Neutrality rules. See our 2/27/15 Blog; FCC Adopts Net Neutrality Rules and our 8/12/13 Blog; What-is-the-Paperwork-Reduction-Act-PRA. The rule requiring OMB approval is the enhanced transparency rule. The FCC estimates that the new rule will: affect 3,188 respondents and require 3,188 responses; have an estimated time per response of 28.9 hours on average; create a total annual burden of 92,133 hours; and have a total annual cost: $640,000. Comments may be filed by July 20, 2015. Comments should address: (1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the FCC, including whether the information has practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the FCC’s burden estimate; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected; (4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and (5) ways to further reduce the information collection burden on small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees.
