[authors: Andrew D. Lipman, Russell M. Blau, Eric J. Branfman, Tamar E. Finn, and Joshua M. Bobeck]

The FCC deadline for large-company responses to the special access Mandatory Data Collection quickly approaches.

As a reminder, in late November, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) extended some deadlines for its Mandatory Data Collection on special access services.

If you are a Provider or Purchaser of special access (as defined in the FCC instructions), or a provider of Best Efforts Broadband, your deadline is either January 29, 2015 (companies with more than 1,500 employees), or February 27, 2015 (companies with 1,500 or fewer employees). The number of employees should be measured at the parent company level. The FCC’s website is available here to complete filer identification and filer type information and to upload essay responses. The database container is also available on the FCC’s website for filers who want to load numerical-type data and run validation checks to make sure that the .txt files conform to the required format.

If you are NOT a Provider, a Purchaser, or providing Best Efforts Broadband, but your company was required to report broadband connections to end users on FCC Form 477 (Local Telephone Competition and Broadband Reporting) for 2013, you were required to file a certification on December 15, 2014.