FCC Requires Annual Audits of Carrier Networks Following 2012 Derecho

The rules require carriers to adopt industry best practices for auditing circuit diversity, to install backup power at central offices that service 911 call centers and to provide diverse network monitoring. Carriers must also notify PSAPs within 30 minutes when outages occur. FCC staff found that the June 2012 derecho windstorm led to connection problems at 77 public safety answering points, with 17 PSAPs in three states losing all connectivity.

The order is stronger than rules called for in an NPRM, which suggested biannual audits (CD Jan 11 p3), though it does not impose backup power requirements per se. The FCC imposed a backup power requirement once before, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina under then-Chairman Kevin Martin. But the agency backed away from the mandate (CD Dec 2/08 p1) before it could take effect.

"These are simple, commonsense solutions,” said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “But they matter, because this is not just a conversation about technical fixes. This is a conversation about real people and their safety.” Clyburn also said the rules were necessary in light of the derecho problems. When the FCC identifies “significant problems in vital services,” the FCC “should not hesitate” to address them, she said.

The rules would impose substantial costs on industry, said Pai. “While the order claims to adopt a certification scheme, it in fact adopts extremely prescriptive and mandatory standards.” Pai cited a provision requiring carriers to “take reasonable measures to provide reliable 911 service.” This “sounds anodyne in theory,” he said. “But in practice, it gives the commission carte blanche to fine 911 [system service providers] that do not comply with whatever particular practices the commission demands. As such, a 911 SSP must comply with new federal rules, such as annual diversity audits. It must do so even if that information reveals nothing new to the providers or their PSAP customers. And it must do so even though across-the-board annual audits do not come cheap -- they are likely to cost the industry anywhere from $8.96 million to $22.4 million each year."

The order also gives the Public Safety Bureau “freewheeling authority” to order remedial action on a case-by-case basis to ensure that a carrier’s network is designed in a way that it is reliable, Pai said. “In other words, the bureau now has the largely unconstrained authority to order a carrier to redesign its network, to purchase new equipment, or to deploy new facilities, if someone in Washington says so,” he said. “This level of micromanagement, even if the commission were equipped to carry it out, is neither appropriate nor effective.”

"This action will increase the likelihood of reaching 911 in times of emergency by requiring telecommunications infrastructure owners to certify compliance with best practices and routinely audit network elements that are essential for 911 service, such as path diversity,” said the National Emergency Number Association in a statement. “While there can never be a fail-proof assurance that telecommunications infrastructure will survive every man-made or natural disaster, today’s action lays out a process to routinely certify those elements of infrastructure that are essential to sustaining and restoring 911 service. NENA recognizes that mandatory circuit audits and certification processes will come at a cost, but these costs must be weighed against the value of 911 service to the thousands of Americans who face emergencies every day.”