FCC to Look at Reimposing Backup Power Requirements in Light of Sandy, June Derecho

FCC officials told us the NPRM draws few tentative conclusions and mostly asks questions about the four major conclusions of the January staff report (http://bit.ly/13qFhc7). The most controversial area will likely be the need to impose requirements for central office backup power, official said. The FCC imposed a backup power requirement once before, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina under former Chairman Kevin Martin. But the agency backed away from the mandate (CD Dec 2/08 p1) before it could take effect.

"The derecho experience makes clear how important it is for the provision of emergency service and reliable and resilient communications to ensure that providers maintain robust, resilient backup power in central offices, supported by appropriate testing, maintenance, and records retention,” the January report said. “As the Commission has recognized previously, reliable central office backup power is essential for communications during large-scale emergencies.”

The NPRM also asks a battery of questions about potential changes to Section 4.9 of the commission’s rules requiring that carriers suffering an outage of facilities that potentially affect a public safety answering point must notify the public safety answering point as soon as possible, said agency officials. “The Commission should consider stating what is expected of providers with more specificity, including, for example, methods of notification and a minimum level of detail in the information provided to PSAPs,” the January report said.

The FCC is also seeking comment on the other two recommendations in the report for FCC followup, agency officials said. They said the report says the commission should examine the need for carriers to regularly audit the physical routes of 911 circuits and automatic location information links and the importance of “diverse monitor and control links and capabilities throughout the network to ensure network reliability, resiliency, and rapid recovery."

Meanwhile, the FCC held a post-Sandy field hearing late Thursday at Moffett Federal Airfield in Santa Clara, Calif., attended by the FCC commissioners. The California hearing follows earlier hearings in New York and New Jersey (CD Feb 6 p1). The FCC is expected to hold at least one other field hearing at a still-to-be-disclosed location, agency officials say.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski laid out four goals for the commission. The four emergency communications goals of the FCC, central to the hearing, are to improve network resiliency, improve restoration, empower the public and unleash technological solutions, Genachowski said.

"Yet it is completely unacceptable” for people to fail to reach 911, Genachowski said. It’s “core to our mission,” he said of the FCC. “We're working to accelerate the deployment of Next Generation 911.” He described the FCC’s efforts with emergency texts and photo sending, the wireless alert system and the FCC’s extension of its network outage reporting requirements to interconnected VoIP providers. “We play an important role in providing situational awareness around our communications networks and outages, working closely with [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] , state and local authorities to ensure continuity of service.” One “recurring issue during times of disaster” now is fuel supplies, he said, describing the FCC’s attempts to help monitor and assist in recovery.

"Unfortunately, we can’t prevent disasters from happening,” said Commissioner Robert McDowell. “Although it may be impossible to fully prepare for and anticipate any contingency that may occur in the future, it is important for government and the private sector to work together to make sure Americans can connect with emergency responders and one another when they need to most. By studying what went wrong, what went right, and to analyze lessons learned, we can and will help make the American public safer for the next event.”

"In New York and New Jersey, we learned a great deal about the damage to our communications systems wrought by Sandy and what steps can be taken to harden our networks against hurricanes and flooding,” said Commissioner Ajit Pai. “But our nation is vast and geographically diverse. Mother Nature challenges each region in different ways, whether it’s hurricanes in the East, earthquakes in the West, or tornadoes in the Midwest."

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel described two images that frame her thinking at the hearing, one from this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and one from Sandy’s aftermath. In Barcelona, “it was as diverse a group as I have ever seen but they had one thing in common,” she said, referring to participants’ faith in “digital age wireless services.” The second image informing her came from her tour of a telecom office in New York City after Superstorm Sandy. She described technicians rushing about trying to make sense of “so many submerged switches and circuits,” a “post apocalyptic” image. The images demonstrate the “great power of the digital age and also its fragility,” she said.

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the East Coast field hearings pointed to how much the FCC tends to treat each network as an independent part of the telecommunications reliability framework. “But the reality is that one network is inextricably linked to the other,” Clyburn said. “A person facing a storm surge’s rising waters may have a wireless device to call for help, but that call will not be answered by a dispatcher without dependable wireline and electrical networks.” Sandy also showed “we have to be prepared for the unexpected,” she said. “As the fires in Breezy Point, New York, demonstrated, related disasters can quickly follow severe weather events.” Clyburn said the FCC also needs to ensure “we can handle calls from diverse communities, including those facing communications difficulties such as language barriers or accessibility challenges.”