Federal Communications Commission DA 20-361 DA 20-361 Released: March 31, 2020 FCC PROVIDES FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING SUBMISSION OF CONFIDENTIAL MATERIALS On March 19, 2020, we announced that the hand-delivery filing location at FCC Headquarters: Open Window Counter, 445 12th Street, S.W., Room TW-A325, Washington, D.C. 20554, was closed, effective immediately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We had previously announced that we are no longer allowing visitors into our facilities, absent clear operational necessity and special permission from the Office of Managing Director. Because hand-delivery of confidential materials is no longer possible, the public is directed to submit such materials as follows: Where an FCC regulation or a Commission protective order, letter of inquiry, request for information, or other similar document requires the filing of a confidential document or other confidential material with the Office of the Secretary, filers should send the filing either via UPS, FedEx, or any overnight mail service, addressed to: Office of the Secretary Federal Communications Commission 9050 Junction Drive Annapolis Junction, MD 20701 or via USPS First Class Mail, Express Mail, or Priority Mail, addressed to: Office of the Secretary Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20554 Where a courtesy copy of the confidential document or other material is required or requested to be submitted to FCC staff, filers are encouraged to send an electronic version of the document or material to the identified FCC staff via email. The document must be password protected and the password communicated to FCC staff via telephone or in a separate email. Submissions may be broken into multiple emails when necessary. Except if previously instructed otherwise, filers may instead send a physical copy of the filing to FCC staff using the procedures described above for submitting documents to the Office of the Secretary, addressed appropriately. The Commission is not currently able to access non-paper filings (e.g., disks or hard drives) submitted via mail.  Therefore, where it is not possible to file the confidential information on paper (e.g., electronic versions of spreadsheets or maps, or voluminous pdfs), in addition to submitting such non-paper materials by mail when required, submitters must contact FCC staff for instructions how to upload the information to Box, a FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Management Program) compliant third-party storage platform used by the Commission.  Or, where feasible (for example, an electronic spreadsheet), the submitter may choose to instead send a password protected version of the document via email to staff. These procedures do not apply if the Commission has already established another method, e.g., a dedicated web portal, for receiving the confidential information.   In situations not described above, requests under section 0.459 of the Commission’s rules, 47 CFR § 0.459, that materials or information submitted to the Commission be withheld from public inspection, along with the material for which confidential treatment is requested, should be submitted to the relevant Bureau or Office using the procedures described above for submitting documents to the Office of the Secretary, addressed appropriately. Requesters are strongly encouraged also to contact FCC staff and to provide an electronic version of the request and a password-protected electronic version of the accompanying materials via email, using the procedures described above. Persons filing confidential information with the Commission are reminded that in many instances they are also required to file a redacted version of a confidential submission, which will be made available to the general public. The public is strongly encouraged to take full advantage of the Commission’s various electronic filing systems for filing these documents. For example, any document, even those being submitted in a non-docketed proceeding, may be submitted electronically through the Electronic Comment Filing System. See 47 CFR § 1.49(f)(3). Filings associated with an existing docket can be submitted through https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings. Those not associated with an existing docket can be submitted at https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/nodocket. INBOX-1.41 is available for miscellaneous filings that do not fit one of the other listed categories. Please direct all questions regarding this Public Notice to Joel Rabinovitz, Office of General Counsel, Joel.Rabinovitz@fcc.gov, (202) 418-0689, or Geraldine Taylor, Office of the Secretary, Geraldine.Taylor@fcc.gov, (202) 418-0305. -FCC- 2