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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 156 / Tuesday, August 17, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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.
Small Businesses, Small Organizations, Small Governmental Jurisdictions. Our actions, over time, may affect small entities that are not easily categorized at present. We therefore describe here, at the outset, three broad groups of small entities that could be directly affected herein. First, while there are industry-specific size standards for small businesses that are used in the regulatory flexibility analysis, according to data from the Small Business Administrations SBAs Office of Advocacy, in general a small business is an independent business having fewer than 500
employees. These types of small businesses represent 99.9% of all businesses in the United States, which translates to 30.7 million businesses.
Next, the type of small entity described as a small organization is generally any not-for-profit enterprise which is independently owned and operated and is not dominant in its field. The Internal Revenue Service IRS uses a revenue benchmark of $50,000 or less to delineate its annual electronic filing requirements for small exempt organizations. Nationwide, for tax year 2018, there were approximately 571,709 small exempt organizations in the U.S. reporting revenues of $50,000
or less according to the registration and tax data for exempt organizations available from the IRS.
Finally, the small entity described as a 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. U.S. Census Bureau data from the 2017 Census of Governments indicate that there were 90,075 local governmental jurisdictions consisting of general purpose governments and special purpose governments in the United States. Of this number there were 36,931 general purpose governments county, municipal and town or township with populations of less than 50,000 and 12,040 special purpose governments independent school districts with enrollment populations of less than
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50,000. Accordingly, based on the 2017
U.S. Census of Governments data, we estimate that at least 48,971 entities fall into the category of small governmental jurisdictions.
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 services, paging services, wireless internet access, and wireless video services. The appropriate size standard under SBA rules is that such a business is small if it has 1,500 or fewer employees. For this industry, U.S.
Census Bureau data for 2012 show that there were 967 firms that operated for the entire year. Of this total, 955 firms employed fewer than 1,000 employees and 12 firms employed 1,000 employees or more. Thus, under this category and the associated size standard, the Commission estimates that the majority of Wireless Telecommunications Carriers except Satellite are small entities.
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 voice over internet protocol 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.
All Other Telecommunications. The All Other Telecommunications
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category is comprised of establishments primarily engaged in providing specialized telecommunications services, such as satellite tracking, communications telemetry, and radar station operation. This industry also includes establishments primarily engaged in providing satellite terminal stations and associated facilities connected with one or more terrestrial systems and capable of transmitting telecommunications to, and receiving telecommunications from, satellite systems. Establishments providing internet services or VoIP services via client-supplied telecommunications connections are also included in this industry. The SBA has developed a small business size standard for All Other Telecommunications, which consists of all such firms with annual receipts of $35 million or less. For this category, U.S. Census Bureau data for 2012 show that there were 1,442 firms that operated for the entire year. Of those firms, a total of 1,400 had annual receipts less than $25 million, and 15
firms had annual receipts of $25 million to $49,999,999. Thus, the Commission estimates that the majority of All Other Telecommunications firms potentially affected by our action can be considered small.
E. Description of Projected Reporting, Recordkeeping, and Other Compliance Requirements The rules adopted in the Report and Order to implement section 902 will impose new or additional reporting or recordkeeping and/or other compliance obligations on small and other sized state and taxing jurisdictions subject to compliance with the Commissions 911
fee obligation or expenditure requirements. While some of the requirements will only impact entities that choose to invoke the provisions, the Commission is not in a position to determine whether small entities will have to hire professionals to comply and cannot quantify the cost of compliance for small entities. Below we discuss the reporting and recordkeeping requirements implicated in the Report and Order.
New 9.25 requires that if a State or taxing jurisdiction receives a grant under section 158 of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act 47
U.S.C. 942 after December 27, 2020, such State or taxing jurisdiction shall provide the information requested by the Commission to prepare the report required under section 6f2 of the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999, as amended 47
U.S.C. 615a1f2. Each state or taxing
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