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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 30 / Wednesday, February 17, 2021 / Proposed Rules
this Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis IRFA of the possible significant economic impact on small entities by the policies and rules proposed in this Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Second Further Notice. The Commission requests written public comments on this IRFA. Comments must be identified as responses to the IRFA and must be filed by the deadlines for comments provided on the first page of the Second Further Notice. The Commission will send a copy of the Second Further Notice, including this IRFA, to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration SBA. In addition, the Second Further Notice and IRFA or summaries thereof will be published in the Federal Register.
A. Need for, and Objectives of, the Proposed Rules 19. The Second Further Notice proposes measures as part of the Commissions efforts to combat illegal spoofed robocalls. Specifically, the Second Further Notice proposes to establish an oversight role for the Commission of the STIR/SHAKEN
governance systems token revocation process. Under the proposal, any voice service provider that has its Service Provider Code token revoked may seek review of this decision by the Commission through set procedures.
The proposal in the Second Further Notice will help promote effective caller ID authentication through STIR/
SHAKEN.

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B. Legal Basis 20. The Second Further Notice proposes to find authority for these proposed rules under TRACED Act.
Section 4b1 of the TRACED Act provided authority to require the implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN
framework. We preliminarily believe that to effectively direct the implementation of STIR/SHAKEN
consistent with the TRACED Act, the Commission must have a role in decisions to revoke Service Provider Code tokens because the result of such a decision could place the service provider in noncompliance with our rules. The Second Further Notice seeks comment on whether we have independent authority under section 251e of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended the Act, under the Truth in Caller ID Act, or any other sources of authority.

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C. Description and Estimate of the Number of Small Entities to Which the Proposed Rules Will Apply 21. The RFA directs agencies to provide a description of and, where feasible, an estimate of the number of small entities that may be affected by the proposed rules and by the rule revisions on which the Notice seeks comment, if adopted. The RFA generally defines the term small entity as having the same meaning as the terms small business, small organization, and small governmental jurisdiction.
In addition, the term small business has the same meaning as the term small-business concern under the Small Business Act. A small-business concern is one which: 1 Is independently owned and operated; 2
is not dominant in its field of operation;
and 3 satisfies any additional criteria established by the SBA.
1. Wireline Carriers 22. Wired Telecommunications Carriers. The U.S. Census Bureau defines this industry as establishments primarily engaged in operating and/or providing access to transmission facilities and infrastructure that they own and/or lease for the transmission of voice, data, text, sound, and video using wired communications networks.
Transmission facilities may be based on a single technology or a combination of technologies. Establishments in this industry use the wired telecommunications network facilities that they operate to provide a variety of services, such as wired telephony services, including VoIP services, wired cable audio and video programming distribution, and wired broadband internet services. By exception, establishments providing satellite television distribution services using facilities and infrastructure that they operate are included in this industry.
The SBA has developed a small business size standard for Wired Telecommunications Carriers, which consists of all such companies having 1,500 or fewer employees. U.S. Census Bureau data for 2012 show that there were 3,117 firms that operated that year.
Of this total, 3,083 operated with fewer than 1,000 employees. Thus, under this size standard, the majority of firms in this industry can be considered small.
23. Local Exchange Carriers LECs.
Neither the Commission nor the SBA
has developed a size standard for small businesses specifically applicable to local exchange services. The closest applicable NAICS Code category is Wired Telecommunications Carriers.
Under the applicable SBA size standard,
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such a business is small if it has 1,500
or fewer employees. U.S. Census Bureau data for 2012 show that there were 3,117
firms that operated for the entire year.
Of that total, 3,083 operated with fewer than 1,000 employees. Thus under this category and the associated size standard, the Commission estimates that the majority of local exchange carriers are small entities.
24. Incumbent LECs. Neither the Commission nor the SBA has developed a small business size standard specifically for incumbent local exchange services. The closest applicable NAICS Code category is Wired Telecommunications Carriers.
Under the applicable SBA size standard, such a business is small if it has 1,500
or fewer employees. U.S. Census Bureau data for 2012 indicate that 3,117 firms operated the entire year. Of this total, 3,083 operated with fewer than 1,000
employees. Consequently, the Commission estimates that most providers of incumbent local exchange service are small businesses that may be affected by our actions. According to Commission data, one thousand three hundred and seven 1,307 Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers reported that they were incumbent local exchange service providers. Of this total, an estimated 1,006 have 1,500 or fewer employees. Thus, using the SBAs size standard the majority of incumbent LECs can be considered small entities.
25. Competitive Local Exchange Carriers Competitive LECs, Competitive Access Providers CAPs, Shared-Tenant Service Providers, and Other Local Service Providers. Neither the Commission nor the SBA has developed a small business size standard specifically for these service providers. The appropriate NAICS Code category is Wired Telecommunications Carriers and under that size standard, such a business is small if it has 1,500
or fewer employees. U.S. Census Bureau data for 2012 indicate that 3,117 firms operated during that year. Of that number, 3,083 operated with fewer than 1,000 employees. Based on these data, the Commission concludes that the majority of Competitive LECS, CAPs, Shared-Tenant Service Providers, and Other Local Service Providers, are small entities. According to Commission data, 1,442 carriers reported that they were engaged in the provision of either competitive local exchange services or competitive access provider services. Of these 1,442 carriers, an estimated 1,256
have 1,500 or fewer employees. In addition, 17 carriers have reported that they are Shared-Tenant Service Providers, and all 17 are estimated to have 1,500 or fewer employees. Also, 72

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