McDowell Seeks Investigation of Priority Access Calling Program

Critical infrastructure issues are in the spotlight at the FCC in the wake of last month’s earthquake and hurricane. FCC commissioners have been invited to speak at a public safety infrastructure workshop at commission headquarters scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Thursday, raising the profile of the event. The FCC’s Sept. 22 meeting will focus on a next-generation 911 rulemaking notice. The FCC is investigating how many callers couldn’t use their cellphones for voice calls after the earthquake and the implications for the nation’s 911 system (CD Aug 25 p1).

"Public safety and homeland security are always a priority for the commission but the recent one-two punch of an earthquake and a hurricane hitting the East Coast, the most densely populated area in the country, has heightened awareness that we need to reexamine what we're doing in this area,” McDowell said. “That coupled with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 makes it a perfect time to rethink what we're doing.

Reply comments were due Thursday on an April notice of inquiry raising a broad range of issues on the reliability and resiliency the nation’s communications networks (http://xrl.us/bmcbbk).

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the main electric unity association, warned that a level of reliability designed to meet most business and consumer needs “does not always translate into reliability and resiliency adequate to meet the operational needs of electric utilities as owners and operators of critical infrastructure.” Better collaboration between carriers and utilities is critical, EEI said (http://xrl.us/bmcbcq). “While carriers indicate their networks perform at 99 percent reliability, it is in the remaining fraction of downtime -- which typically will occur during or immediately following natural or man-made events -- when utilities are most reliant on communications in order to restore critical services and to protect the safety of utility field crews and the general public.” EEI also said electric utilities should have a “seat at the table” during development and refinement of communications industry standards and best practices.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) said the recent earthquake and hurricane underscored problems often seen with commercial networks (http://xrl.us/bmcbdz). “This story repeats itself regularly after natural disasters, yet carriers in this proceeding paint a rosy picture of network reliability,” said the oil and gas industry trade association. “This carrier mindset underscores the fact that while the oil and natural gas industry is a significant user of commercial networks for enterprise use, private internal systems will be required for the foreseeable future for core mission critical communications that are used to ensure the safety of life and property.” API said, despite this fact, rather than allocating more spectrum for the use of critical infrastructure companies, the FCC has “routinely required private radio users -- such as oil and gas companies and electric utilities -- to vacate spectrum as a means of accommodating the entry of new commercial providers serving mass markets.” API cited in particular the 1850-1990 MHz band, reallocated to PCS, parts of the 2 GHz band cleared to accommodate “new Advanced Wireless Services,” the 12.2-12.7 GHz band cleared prior to the introduction of the Direct Broadcast Satellite service.

Southern Company said “after reviewing the comments submitted in this proceeding, Southern is especially concerned that commercial operators continue to either refuse to acknowledge or to outright deny that the shortcomings identified by EEI, [the Utilities Telecom Council], and other utility commenters are issues that must be addressed, particularly if commercial networks are to be used in support of critical utility communications.” The electric utility also cited problems following the Virginia earthquake (http://xrl.us/bmcbe2). “As the Commission is well aware, the earthquake resulted in significant disruption to commercial wireless service throughout the affected area, including the Washington and New York metropolitan regions,” the filing said. “This disruption was not the result of any physical damage to network infrastructure (commercial operators in fact reported no indications of network damage), but rather the result of high call volumes immediately following the earthquake that overloaded operators’ network capacity."

The Telecommunications Industry Association countered that nothing in the record shows the need for sweeping new regulation for the telecom industry (http://xrl.us/bmcbfe). “The record very strongly shows that the nation’s communications networks are reliable, and continue to evolve and improve due to the myriad of voluntary industry standards and best practices, public-private partnerships, and internal company efforts,” TIA said. “These efforts are not due to regulations; in fact, the opposite is true. TIA takes issue with comments which assert that improvements in network reliability are not due to competition. TIA also specifically opposes the request on the record to create a sweeping backup power generator requirement for facilities."

AT&T also argued that the FCC should not step in to impose new regulations as a result of the NOI (http://xrl.us/bmcbf5). “The record is replete with evidence from every segment of the telecommunications sector demonstrating that the industry aggressively attempts to maximize the reliability of communications networks and the effectiveness of processes for recovering from service disruption,” AT&T said. “This emphasis on survivability is driven by powerful market forces that require service providers to innovate and improve the reliability of their networks in order to compete effectively.”

The Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions said there is “broad acknowledgement” in the record “that communications networks are reliable and providers are strongly incented to maintain that reliability.” The FCC does not need to impose new regulations in the area or mandate a needs-based study on redundancy, ATIS said (http://xrl.us/bmcbgu). ATIS acknowledged that electric, gas and water utilities may have unique needs for reliable communications. “However, the existence of these distinct requirements and/or the ability of existing communications to meet these needs do not prove that communications systems are unreliable or that additional Commission mandates are necessary,” the group said.