(a) The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) jointly shall establish the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachment and shall sponsor the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments for four years from the effective date of these rules. The division of duties by which this responsibility is executed may be a matter of agreement between these two parties; however, both are jointly and severally responsible for observing these rule provisions. After four years from the effective date of these rules, and thereafter on a quadrennial basis, the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments may vote by simple majority to be sponsored by any ANSI-accredited organization.

(b) The sponsoring organizations shall ensure that the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments is populated in a manner consistent with the criteria of American National Standards Institute's Organization Method or the Standards Committee Method (and their successor Method or Methods as ANSI may from time to time establish) for a balanced and open membership.

(c) After the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments is populated, the sponsors are responsible for fulfilling secretariat positions as determined by the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments. The Administrative Council shall post on a publicly available web site and make available to the public in hard copy form the written agreement into which it enters with the sponsor or sponsors.

(a) Any standards development organization that is accredited under the American National Standards Institute's Organization Method or the Standards Committee Method (and their successor Method or Methods as ANSI may from time to time establish) may establish technical criteria for terminal equipment pursuant to ANSI consensus decision-making procedures, and it may submit such criteria to the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments.

(b) Any ANSI-accredited standards development organization that develops standards for submission to the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments must implement and use procedures for the development of those standards that ensure openness equivalent to the Commission rulemaking process.

(c) Any standards development organization that submits standards to the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments for publication as technical criteria shall certify to the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments that:

(1) The submitting standards development organization is ANSI-accredited to the Standards Committee Method or the Organization Method (or their successor Methods as amended from time to time by ANSI);

(2) The technical criteria that it proposes for publication do not conflict with any published technical criteria or with any technical criteria submitted and pending for publication, and

(3) The technical criteria that it proposes for publication are limited to preventing harms to the public switched telephone network, identified in § 68.3 of this part.

The Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments shall place technical criteria proposed for publication on public notice for 30 days. At the end of the 30 day public notice period, if there are no oppositions, the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments shall publish the technical criteria.

(a) The Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments shall operate and maintain a database of all approved terminal equipment. The database shall meet the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Customs Service for enforcement purposes. The database shall be accessible by government agencies free of charge. Information in the database shall be readily available and accessible to the public, including individuals with disabilities, at nominal or no costs.

(b) Responsible parties, whether they obtain their approval from a Telecommunications Certification Body or utilize the Supplier's Declaration of Conformity process, shall submit to the database administrator all information required by the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments.

(c) The Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments shall ensure that the database is created and maintained in an equitable and nondiscriminatory manner. The manner in which the database is created and maintained shall not permit any entity or segment of the industry to gain a competitive advantage.

(d) The Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments shall file with the Commission, within 180 days of publication of these rules in the Federal Register, a detailed report of the structure of the database, including details of how the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments will administer the database, the pertinent information to be included in the database, procedures for including compliance information in the database, and details regarding how the government and the public will access the information.

Terminal equipment certified by a Telecommunications Certification Body or approved by the Supplier's Declaration of Conformity under this part shall be labeled. The Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments shall establish appropriate labeling of terminal equipment. Labeling shall meet the requirements of the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Customs Service for their respective enforcement purposes, and of consumers for purposes of identifying the responsible party and model number.

(a) Oppositions filed in response to the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments' public notice of technical criteria proposed for publication must be received by the Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments within 30 days of public notice to be considered. Oppositions to proposed technical criteria shall be addressed through the appeals procedures of the authoring standards development organization and of the American National Standards Institute. If these procedures have been exhausted, the aggrieved party shall file its opposition with the Commission for de novo review.

(b) As an alternative, oppositions to proposed technical criteria may be filed directly with the Commission for de novo review within the 30 day public notice period.