Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC Proposes Extending Service Outage Reporting Requirements to Wireless Providers

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 13:03:21 -0500

FCC Proposes Extending Service Outage Reporting Requirements to Wireless
Providers

Citing the need for more reliable telecommunications and improved
homeland security, the Commission adopted an NPRM on February 12 that
would subject wireless providers to the service outage reporting
requirements. The Commission also proposed a common metric for all
services subject to the service outage reporting requirements. In the
NPRM, the Commission proposed a service outage reporting requirement
threshold of any outage that lasts at least thirty minutes and
potentially affects at least 900,000 "user minutes." The Commission
proposed to calculate "user minutes" by multiplying the minutes of the
duration by the number of end users who could be affected by the outage.

Announcing that it needed more timely information on service outages
than it currently receives, the Commission proposed a system in which
wireless, wireline, cable, and satellite providers would electronically
notify the Commission of service outages. In order to facilitate this
reporting, the Commission has proposed an electronic template that
service providers would submit via the Internet.

The Commission based the template, a copy of which is attached to the
NPRM, on its experience in managing service outage reporting
requirements for wireline providers. The proposal would subject wireless
and satellite providers to mandatory service outage reporting for the
first time. Under the current scheme, only wireline and cable providers
are required to submit service outage reports. Chairman Powell explained
the importance of including emerging technologies in the service outage
reporting requirements and indicated that the expanded reporting
requirements would give communications providers more opportunities to
identify possible vulnerabilities in their systems.

Despite that potential benefit, wireless providers remain adamant that a
voluntary reporting system would be more efficient than a mandatory
system. CTIA President Steve Largent recently stated that a voluntary
regime is the best way to facilitate cooperation among carriers and to
monitor network reliability. In response to the wireless industry's call
for a voluntary system, Edmond Thomas, Chief of the Office of
Engineering and Technology, responded that the voluntary reporting
system that currently exists for wireless providers has been
ineffective.

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