‘Issuing Best Practices’ Alone Not the Answer, FCC Chief Turetsky Says at Derecho Hearing

"It is clear that simply issuing best practices is no panacea -- it’s just not a complete answer,” FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Chief David Turetsky told the D.C. Council. It’s “an important and valuable step” but not “a complete answer,” he said. 911 centers don’t have a way of knowing whether carriers are following best practices and standards “to any absolute certainty, no,” said D.C. 911 Director Jennifer Greene in later questioning. “We can ask” and receive answers but there’s “no way to challenge whether that’s a true statement or not,” she said. 911 centers have “means to get information,” said Turetsky, but he couldn’t say whether 911 centers have a sure way of knowing whether a given carrier is following best practices. The D.C. Council would have to ask individual 911 centers, he said.

Verizon’s initial post-derecho descriptions of its power maintenance and failures are “at odds” with the harsh critique in the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Sept. 14 interim report (CD Sept 17 p12), said D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. He compared the August Verizon report and the September commission report. Verizon Mid-Atlantic Vice President Anthony Lewis acknowledged the difference and said Verizon “modified that original statement” as a result of its own further investigations into the power failures. Verizon missed its own failures of testing during its original post-derecho review and as reflected in its August report, he said.

The FCC will produce a report on the derecho by the end of 2012, according to Turetsky. “We may end up doing two versions,” he said, referring to possible public and confidential versions. The FCC has spoken to about 25 911 centers and is in “continual” dialogue as well with different carriers as part of the investigation begun in July, he said. It’s possible the FCC will engage in a more “in-depth” second phase of the investigation in 2013 looking at solutions, he said. This first, ongoing phase will focus on identifying the problems and what didn’t work, he said.

The MWCOG will likely complete its own assessment by the end of October and then present it to the board of directors in November, said Executive Director David Robertson. The council of governments had assembled a task force, which has met repeatedly with Verizon and submitted multiple recommendations the telco has adopted (CD Aug 16 p5). He praised the “very good participation” from all parties involved.

Verizon will also follow up on its August report with another one, said Lewis. It will come out “probably shortly,” he said.

The telco described its post-derecho strategy in greater detail than before. Verizon is engaging in “rigorous power system audits,” which will conclude in the mid-Atlantic region by the end of October and nationwide by the end of March 2013. It’s also instituting new emergency procedures for testing, power restoration and personnel mobilization, he said. Technicians will now all be trained for “first-level troubleshooting” in regards to system power, Lewis said. The derecho aftermath hurt Verizon’s “visibility into the network” and Verizon wasn’t communicating its lack of knowledge to the PSAPs, he said. A part of its new strategy will be to communicate “even if we're not exactly sure what’s going on” but it hopes to improve visibility through telemetry, he said. Verizon hopes to enhance the “survivability” of its monitoring systems, he said. “We have a special task force assigned by the CEO to look into exactly why this occurred,” Lewis said, describing “extraordinary resources” directed toward solutions. The derecho problems will not occur in D.C., if a similar storm comes, he pledged, adding the caveat that the system will never be infallible.

One underlying question pursued by Mendelson concerned the distinction between wireline and wireless, especially for 911 service. Wireline and wireless are “equally reliable” and people should know that, Lewis said. But Turetsky said “there can be a difference” between them and described wireless networks’ peak capacity and how cell sites can go down. The solution should look toward next-generation 911 technology, a new network that “doesn’t depend on all the switches and gizmos” that the 44-year-old 911 network now does, Souder told the D.C. Council. Lightning struck one Falls Church man during the derecho but his friends couldn’t reach any 911 centers with their cellphones because the networks were overloaded, Souder said. A small number of Virginia-based wireless calls were routed to the D.C. 911 center during the derecho, said Greene. The calls were routed to the D.C. center “more than likely” because the relevant Virginia cell tower was down, according to Greene, who said wireless calls sometimes are sent to other 911 centers accidentally. The D.C. 911 center is working with carriers to resolve this, she said.

"Frankly, sir, the 911 systems in the path of [Hurricane] Isaac fared better than the 911 systems in the path of the derecho,” Turetsky said. The nature of the derecho tested “the conditions in place” without the preparations a big event like a hurricane affords and the FCC wasn’t pleased, he said. “I was extremely disturbed by what happened with the derecho.”