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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 166 / Tuesday, August 31, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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.
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, SharedTenant 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
carriers have reported that they are Other Local Service Providers. Of this total, 70 have 1,500 or fewer employees.
Consequently, based on internally researched FCC data, the Commission estimates that most providers of competitive local exchange service, competitive access providers, SharedTenant Service Providers, and Other Local Service Providers are small entities.
We have included small incumbent LECs 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 SBAs Office of Advocacy contends that, for RFA
purposes, small incumbent LECs are not dominant in their field of operation because any such dominance is not
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national in scope. We have therefore included small incumbent LECs in this RFA analysis, although we emphasize that this RFA action has no effect on Commission analyses and determinations in other, non-RFA
contexts.
Interexchange Carriers IXCs. Neither the Commission nor the SBA has developed a small business size standard specifically for Interexchange Carriers. The closest applicable NAICS
Code category is Wired Telecommunications Carriers. The applicable size standard under SBA
rules is that 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 for the entire year. Of that number, 3,083 operated with fewer than 1,000 employees.
According to internally developed Commission data, 359 companies reported that their primary telecommunications service activity was the provision of interexchange services.
Of this total, an estimated 317 have 1,500 or fewer employees.
Consequently, the Commission estimates that the majority of interexchange service providers are small entities.
Cable System Operators Telecom Act Standard. The Communications Act of 1934, as amended, also contains a size standard for small cable system operators, which is a cable operator that, directly or through an affiliate, serves in the aggregate fewer than one percent of all subscribers in the United States and is not affiliated with any entity or entities whose gross annual revenues in the aggregate exceed $250,000,000. As of 2018, there were approximately 50,504,624 cable video subscribers in the United States.
Accordingly, an operator serving fewer than 505,046 subscribers shall be deemed a small operator if its annual revenues, when combined with the total annual revenues of all its affiliates, do not exceed $250 million in the aggregate. We note that the Commission neither requests nor collects information on whether cable system operators are affiliated with entities whose gross annual revenues exceed $250 million.
Therefore we are unable at this time to estimate with greater precision the number of cable system operators that would qualify as small cable operators under the definition in the Communications Act.
Wireless Telecommunications Carriers except Satellite. This industry comprises establishments engaged in operating and maintaining switching and transmission facilities to provide communications via the airwaves.

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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 of 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.
The Commissions own data available in its Universal Licensing Systemindicate that, as of August 31, 2018 there are 265 Cellular licensees that will be affected by our actions. The Commission does not know how many of these licensees are small, as the Commission does not collect that information for these types of entities.
Similarly, according to internally developed Commission data, 413
carriers reported that they were engaged in the provision of wireless telephony, including cellular service, Personal Communications Service PCS, and Specialized Mobile Radio SMR
Telephony services. Of this total, an estimated 261 have 1,500 or fewer employees, and 152 have more than 1,500 employees. Thus, using available data, we estimate that the majority of wireless firms can be considered small.
Satellite Telecommunications. This category comprises firms primarily engaged in providing telecommunications services to other establishments in the telecommunications and broadcasting industries by forwarding and receiving communications signals via a system of satellites or reselling satellite telecommunications. Satellite telecommunications service providers include satellite and earth station operators. The category has a small business size standard of $35 million or less in average annual receipts, under SBA rules. For this category, U.S.
Census Bureau data for 2012 show that there were a total of 333 firms that operated for the entire year. Of this total, 299 firms had annual receipts of less than $25 million. Consequently, we estimate that the majority of satellite telecommunications providers are small entities.
Local Resellers. The SBA has not developed a small business size standard specifically for Local Resellers.

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