WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC has updated its rules and proposed additional updates designed to improve communications network reliability, resiliency, and transparency during disasters and outages.
The rule changes, approved unanimously by the Commission on Thursday at its January Open Meeting, will increase participation in, and enhance the use of, the FCC’s Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), in which service providers report on their operational status during emergencies. This operational data informs service restoration efforts during disasters, when it is vital for first responders and the public to maintain communications.
Certain types of communications providers are required to report network outages to the FCC’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) on an ongoing basis. During disasters, the FCC may also activate DIRS to gain greater situational awareness, keep public safety officials and the general public informed about service outages, and support service restoration. In the case of DIRS, however, industry participation is voluntary—which can result in information gaps that impair emergency response. There are also information gaps with NORS because some communications providers are not required to participate.
To address these gaps, and to enhance public safety, the Commission adopted rules that:
· Require cable communications, wireline, wireless, and interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers to report daily infrastructure status information when DIRS is activated for geographic areas in which they provide service.
· Suspend NORS reporting obligations when providers are required to report in DIRS during a disaster, so they are not obligated to report twice.
· Require DIRS filers to provide a single, final summary DIRS report to the Commission within 24 hours of the deactivation of DIRS.
The Commission is also seeking comment on:
· Whether to require TV and radio broadcasters, satellite providers, and broadband Internet access service (BIAS) providers to report in NORS and/or DIRS.
· The extent to which the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) should be subject to NORS and/or DIRS reporting.
· Whether providers should be required to supply the Commission with after-action reports detailing how their networks fared during the emergency or disaster event.
· Whether providers should be required to report the location of mobile recovery assets during a disaster response, as well other specifications of those assets.
