Backup Power, System Resilience Focuses of FCC Katrina Mandates
The FCC’s handed down new mandates for carriers to prepare for emergencies, including requirements that larger carriers install backup power for critical facilities and file reports on the resilience of their 911 systems, in approving an order Thurs. following through on parts of last year’s Hurricane Katrina Panel report. The order extends by a year provisions exempting the Bells from a ban on sharing some information with their affiliates, to speed their disaster planning. The order also instructs the Public Safety Bureau to establish a clearinghouse to provide information to industry on best practices for preparing for disaster.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Hurricane Katrina had a devastating effect on communications in the Gulf region, as the panel’s report revealed, -- cutting off phone service to an estimated 3 million, knocking out more than 1,000 cell sites and 35 PSAPs. The FCC approved the order on the eve of hurricane season, which officially begins today (Fri.).
The FCC ordered LECS and CMRS providers to have in place backup power for all assets normally powered from local, AC commercial power -- including central offices, cellsites and remote switches. The National Emergency Number Assn. had recommended that requirement in its Katrina report comments. Reliability and resilience reports must be filed by larger LECs, wireless carriers and interconnected VoIP providers.
The order was a surprise: Many industry sources had expected the FCC to make mostly nonbinding recommendations on industry best practices. A source said it was toughened on the 8th floor while it was before the Commission. Members of the Commission said the order deals directly with problems that carriers experienced during Katrina. Comr. Copps said he was pleased that other members of the Commission agreed new mandates were necessary.
“I am pleased that we seem to be on the cusp of realizing that a more proactive approach may be necessary,” Copps said: “I also think the record that was developed was too heavily skewed by the belief -- I think the pernicious belief -- that the FCC either will not or should not take a lead role in mandating network resiliency standards. The nation’s experience with 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina indicates to me that industry best practices and voluntary best efforts are not by themselves always going to get the job done.”
But Comr. Adelstein said much of the order is little more than a “series of inspirational objectives” for the new Public Safety Bureau. For example, he said, the report found that flooding was a major cause of damage to communications systems. “This order does not in itself require any concrete actions to address this very real problem,” he said.
Likewise, Adelstein said, the order directs the Bureau to encourage carriers to make use of emergency preparation checklists. “Although outreach and voluntary measures can play a critical role, we must continue to push communications providers to go the extra mile to achieve a true level of preparedness,” he said: “Without firm commitments, can we seriously tell the people of the Gulf Coast region that this Commission has taken all of the necessary steps to ensure that such a communications disaster will never happen again?”