By Bradford Ham, CommLawBlog, December 16, 2013
| FCC addresses numerous systemic failures in 911 service that | surfaced after 2012 "derecho" storm. | | In a matter of hours on June, 2012, a powerful, fast-moving, | killer storm (dubbed a "derecho") swept from the Midwest to | Northern Virginia, a silver-dollar's-throw across the Potomac | from the FCC's headquarters. It laid bare severe shortcomings | in 911 service: from isolated breakdowns to systemic failures, | 911 service was unavailable (or at least unreliable) for | millions of residents for extended periods. | | In the wake of that unacceptably poor performance of a | critical public safety function, the FCC completed an | extensive review of the 911 system begun in 2011. As a result | of that review, the FCC has now imposed on 911 system service | providers (SSPs) a new and rigorous set of requirements. (This | latest action is separate from, but motivated by some of the | same concerns as, the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking | released last September looking to require facilities-based | Commercial Mobile Radio Service providers to provide daily | public reports of the percentage of cell sites operating in | their networks during and immediately after major disasters.)
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Neal McLain