Communications Daily is a service of Warren Communications News.

Free Press Pans Voluntary Resiliency Framework; Industry Disagrees

Free Press urged the FCC to “comprehensively reexamine the sufficiency” of the wireless resiliency cooperative framework and whether it should remain voluntary, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 11-60. Wireless commenters defended the framework. The FCC has the opportunity to…

Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article

Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!

better understand communications failures after disasters by asking questions now, Free Press said: “The agency must fill in the massive gaps in its knowledge of the impact of the hurricanes and the underlying causes of outages in Puerto Rico in 2017, and trace those same kinds of failures through several devastating California wildfire seasons and other disasters." A "flexible, voluntary approach remains the best paradigm for advancing wireless network resiliency,” CTIA countered: “There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to resiliency, and there should be no one-size-fits-all mandate or metric to assess the efficacy of efforts.” Voluntary efforts are working, said the ATIS. American Tower said: “Improving network resiliency requires evaluation of individual communications sites and collaboration between industry stakeholders and policymakers.” That networks performed well during the pandemic shows their resilience, AT&T said, citing its "substantial investments in network resiliency” and work with stakeholders. Each disaster “is unique in terms of cause, geography, consumer and network impact, and severity,” Verizon said: “Providers’ networks themselves vary based on geography, technology choice, and available resources.” T-Mobile commented: “Although wireless networks are not immune from the destructive effects” of natural disasters, “wireless carriers continuously are taking steps to prevent outages and ensure ... reliability and resiliency.”