A.Description and Estimate of the Number of Small Entities to Which Rules Will Apply

A.Description and Estimate of the Number of Small Entities to Which Rules Will Apply

CLXXXIII.Our action may, over time, affect small entities that are not easily categorized at present. We therefore describe here, at the outset, three comprehensive, statutory small entity size standards that encompass entities that could be directly affected by the proposals under consideration.⁹ As of 2009, small businesses represented 99.9% of the 27.5 million businesses in the United States, according to the SBA.¹⁰ Additionally, a “small organization” is generally “any not-for-profit enterprise which is independently owned and operated and is not dominant in its field.”¹¹ Nationwide, as of 2007, there were approximately 1,621,315 small organizations.¹² Finally, the term “small governmental jurisdiction” is defined generally as “governments of cities, counties, towns, townships, villages, school districts, or special districts, with a population of less than fifty thousand.”¹³ Census Bureau data for 2007 indicate that there were 89,527 governmental jurisdictions in the United States.¹⁴ We estimate that, of this total, as many as 88,761 entities may qualify as “small governmental jurisdictions.”¹⁵ Thus, we estimate that most governmental jurisdictions are small.

CLXXXIV.Except for amendments to our existing outage reporting rules, the rules adopted here focus narrowly on entities that provide key facilities for 911 service rather than the broader class of all communications services capable of placing 911 calls. Like the Derecho Report, the Report and Order defines “911 service provider” as a communications provider responsible for routing and delivering 911 calls and location information directly to PSAPs. Under current technologies, these providers are typically ILECs, although the transition to NG911 may broaden the class of entities that provide 911 service in the future.

CLXXXV.Small Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers. We have included small incumbent local exchange carriers in this present RFA analysis. As noted above, a “small business” under the RFA is one that, inter alia, meets the pertinent small business size standard (e.g., a telephone communications business having 1,500 or fewer employees), and “is not dominant in its field of operation.” The SBA’s Office of Advocacy contends that, for RFA purposes, small incumbent local exchange carriers are not dominant in their field of operation because any such dominance is not “national” in scope. We have therefore included small incumbent local exchange carriers in this RFA analysis, although we emphasize that this RFA action has no effect on Commission analyses and determinations in other, non-RFA contexts.

CLXXXVI.Wireless Telecommunications Carriers (except satellite). This industry comprises establishments engaged in operating and maintaining switching and transmission facilities to provide communications via the airwaves. Establishments in this industry have spectrum licenses and provide services using that spectrum, such as cellular phone services, paging services, wireless Internet access, and wireless video services.¹⁶ The appropriate size standard under SBA rules is for the category Wireless Telecommunications Carriers. The size standard for that category is that a business is small if it has 1,500 or fewer employees.¹⁷ For this category, census data for 2007 show that there were 11,163 establishments that operated for the entire year.¹⁸ Of this total, 10,791 establishments had employment of 999 or fewer employees and 372 had employment of 1000 employees or more.¹⁹ Thus under this category and the associated small business size standard, the Commission estimates that the majority of wireless telecommunications carriers (except satellite) are small entities that may be affected by our proposed action.²⁰

A.Description of Projected Reporting, Recordkeeping, and Other Compliance Requirements for Small Entities

CLXXXVIII.If a Covered 911 Service Provider relies on alternative measures in lieu of specific certification elements, the Bureau may conduct a more detailed review to determine whether its measures are nevertheless reasonably adequate to ensure reliable 911 service. Where information revealed through the outage reporting process or available through public sources indicates unresolved vulnerabilities in a service provider’s 911 network, the Commission may request additional information, require remedial action to correct those vulnerabilities, or refer the matter to the Enforcement Bureau for further action as appropriate.

CLXXXIX.In addition, we amend our outage reporting rules under Part 4 to clarify Covered 911 Service Providers’ obligations to provide PSAPs with timely and actionable notification of outages affecting 911 service. These amendments respond to reports of untimely or inadequate notification during the June 2012 derecho and provide more specific guidance on how 911 call centers can expect to be notified in the event of a 911 service failure.