ACA: Special Access Request Could Be Unlawful

The American Cable Association (ACA) has told the Federal Communications Commission that if it does not give its smaller and mid-sized cable operator members some relief from data collection requirements for the FCC's review of the special access market, it is in danger of violating the law. "The cost of gathering, collating, and formatting the information will be excessive for small cable operators," said ACA president Matt Polka. "Because the request imposes such large burdens on small cable operators, ACA submits they are not compliant with the Paperwork Reduction Act's directive to minimize the paperwork burden, especially for smaller entities, and needs to be extensively revised before the mandatory data request should be issued."