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If you need the complete document, download the WordPerfect version or Adobe Acrobat version, if available. ***************************************************************** Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of ) ) Amendments to Parts 0 and 63 of the ) Commission's Rules to Change the ) Recipient of Final Telephone Network ) Outage Reports from the Chief of ) the Common Carrier Bureau to the ) Chief of the Office of Engineering ) Engineering and Technology ) ORDER Adopted: June 19, 1998 Released: June 25, 1998 By the Commission: 1. Section 63.100 of the Commission's rules requires wireline common carriers to send final reports of certain telephone network service outages to the Chief of the Common Carrier Bureau. This order amends the rule so that carriers required to provide the Commission with final reports of those outages will be directed to send them to the Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology instead. 2. An outage is "a significant degradation in the ability of a customer to establish and maintain a channel of communications as a result of failure or degradation in the performance of a carrier's network." Section 63.100 defines the types of outages that carriers must report to the Commission, the deadlines for reporting, and the information required to be reported for each type of outage. The section requires that for each type of reportable outage: Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Common Carrier Bureau, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all available information on the service outage, including any information not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type. 3. Since February 18, 1996, the Office of Engineering and Technology has coordinated the meetings and other activities of the Network Reliability Council, now called the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council. Previously this coordinating function was carried out by the Common Carrier Bureau. The receipt and tabulation of outage reports, however, continues to be carried out by the staff of the Common Carrier Bureau. Since these outage reports are relied upon by the Council in the conduct of its research and since tabulation and any analysis that may be required is best conducted by those most familiar with the best practice recommendations of the Council, the Council coordination function and the receipt and tabulation function should be consolidated in the same office. 4. For the reasons set forth above, we are modifying the language in the relevant paragraphs of Section 63.100 to read as follows: Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all available information on the service outage, including any information not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type. 5. To indicate that the functions of the Office of Engineering and Technology now include authority to formulate general policies with respect to Section 63.100, we are modifying the language in paragraph (j) of Section 0.31 to read as follows: (j) To perform all engineering and management functions of the Commission with respect to formulating rules and regulations, technical standards, and general policies for parts 15, 18 and section 63.100 of this chapter, and for type approval and acceptance, and certification of radio equipment for compliance with the Rules. 6. We find that the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act do not apply here because we are changing a "rule of agency organization, procedure, or practice." Moreover, even if the rules at issue were not matters of agency organization, these requirements would not apply because they are unnecessary. Notice and comment on the change is unnecessary because the change, which merely substitutes one Bureau in the FCC with another does not affect any rights or obligations of the public. 7. The Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C.  601, et seq., does not apply to this proceeding because we are adopting this rule without notice and comment. See 5 U.S.C.  603(a) and 604(a). 8. The congressional review procedures of the Subtitle E of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, 5 U.S.C.  801, et seq., do not apply here because this revision of Section 63.100(b)(c)(d)(e) and (h) is not a rule within the meaning of 5 U.S.C.  804(3)(C) (excluding from congressional review rules of agency organization, procedure, or practice that do not substantially affect the rights or obligations of non-agency parties). 9. We find that good cause exists for requiring these rule changes to become effective upon publication in the Federal Register. Section 63.100, by dividing closely related functions of an agency among different Bureaus, complicates internal agency communication and is, therefore, inefficient. Consolidation of these functions within a single Bureau at the earliest possible time is clearly in the public interest. Moreover, the carriers should have no difficulty complying immediately with the rule changes because, as discussed above, they only change the location to which reports are sent from one office to another within the same agency. 10. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to Sections 1, 4(i), 201-205 and 303(r) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C.  151, 154 (i), 201-205, and 303(r) and Section 553(b)(A) of the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C.  553(b)(A), that Part 63 of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R. 63.100 IS AMENDED as set forth in the Appendix below, effective on the date of publication in the Federal Register. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Magalie Roman Salas, Secretary. APPENDIX - Final Rules 1. Part 0 of Chapter I of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows: PART 0 -- COMMISSION ORGANIZATION 2. The authority citation for Part 0 continues to read as follows: Authority: Secs. 5, 48 Stat. 1068, as amended; 47 U.S.C. 155. 3. Section 0.31 is amended as follows: in paragraph (j) remove the only sentence and add one sentence in its place Section 0.31 Functions of the Office * * * * * (j) To perform all engineering and management functions of the Commission with respect to formulating rules and regulations, technical standards, and general policies for parts 15, 18 and section 63.100 of this chapter, and for type approval and acceptance, and certification of radio equipment for compliance with the Rules. * * * * * 4. Part 63 of Chapter I of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations is amended as follows: PART 63--EXTENSION OF LINES AND DISCONTINUANCE, REDUCTION, OUTAGE AND IMPAIRMENT OF SERVICE BY COMMON CARRIERS; AND GRANTS OF RECOGNIZED PRIVATE OPERATING AGENCY STATUS 5. The authority citation for Part 63 continues to read as follows: Authority: 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i), 154(j), 201-205, 218, 403 and 533, unless otherwise noted. 6. Section 63.100 is amended as follows: a. in paragraph (b) remove the last sentence and add one sentence in its place; b. in paragraph (c) remove the last sentence and add one sentence in its place; c. in paragraph (d) remove the last sentence and add one sentence in its place; d. in paragraph (e) remove the ninth sentence of the introductory text and add one sentence in its place; and e. in paragraph (h) remove the last sentence and add one sentence in its place.  63.100 Notification of service outage. * * * * * (b) * * * Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all available information on the service outage, including any information not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type. (c) * * * Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all available information on the service outage, including any information not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type. (d) * * * Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all available information on the service outage, including any information not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type. (e) * * * Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all available information on the service outage, including any information not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type. * * * * * (h) * * * Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Office of Engineering and Technology, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all available information on the service outage, including any information not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type. * * * * *