Mandatory DIRS Item Expected to Change Little Before Thursday Vote

A draft order on making the FCC's disaster information reporting system mandatory for cable, wireline, wireless and VoIP providers hasn’t seen many changes since circulation and is expected to be approved at a commissioners' open meeting Thursday, agency and industry officials told us (see 2401040064). The item, in docket 21-346, also includes a Further NPRM that would seek comment on extending mandatory DIRS reports to broadcasters, satellite providers and broadband internet access service providers.

Mandatory DIRS reporting is expected to disproportionately affect smaller entities with fewer staff, said ACA Connects Chief Regulatory Counsel Brian Hurley. “The priority really has to be on responding to the event and restoring service as quickly as possible ... we're concerned that a mandatory reporting application sort of thrust into the middle of that would divert resources.”

The “voluntary nature” of DIRS leads to “information gaps that can impair efficient emergency response, because providers choose not to file," said the FCC’s fact sheet on the draft item. Teed up by a 2021 NPRM, the order would require covered industries to file reports in DIRS whenever it's active in a region where they operate. They also would submit a final report to the FCC within 24 hours of DIRS being deactivated. The order would suspend network outage reporting requirements while DIRS is active, so the entities don’t have to report twice. “These rule changes will improve network reliability and resiliency and operational transparency, both during and in the aftermath of disasters and outages,” said the draft order.

Larger cable, wireline and wireless entities with big geographic footprints deal with DIRS reporting frequently, while smaller companies do so during those rare times when there is a disaster in their region, Hurley said. “Many NCTA members are longstanding participants in the DIRS voluntary system,” said NCTA in an ex parte filing last week that was generally supportive of the rule change.

“This is a mandate on smaller operators,” Hurley said. They don’t frequently use the system, so they will have to learn how to do it in the midst of whatever disaster has triggered DIRS, “the worst day ever for your network,” Hurley said.

“The size of the provider a consumer uses should not affect a consumer’s right to public safety and potentially life-saving information,” said the draft order. “Nor should small rural communities be less entitled to functioning networks that provide alerts and 911 capability than communities served by large providers.” The agency can also address undue burdens for smaller entities case by case through the waiver process, the draft order said.

Lumen said the agency should add language to the draft promising that the FCC will be flexible in evaluating the accuracy of mandatory DIRS reports. “It may be difficult in the moment for a provider to get a precise accounting of how many VoIP subscribers are out of service, and it would be counterproductive for technicians to be diverted from critical response efforts in favor of pursuing a subscriber outage number of near-perfect accuracy rather than one of reasonable accuracy,” said Lumen's filing.

Industry officials raised similar concerns about the proposal for mandatory reporting being extended to broadcasting, satellite providers and BIAS providers. Broadcasters trying to keep generators fueled and reporters in the field would also have to be concerned about possible future FCC enforcement action over unfiled DIRS reports, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Montero. The draft FNPRM would seek comment on adopting different reporting requirements for small and large broadcasters. Mandatory DIRS reporting for broadcasters “could ensure a standardized and coordinated approach among entities potentially impacted by disasters, allowing authorities to make informed decisions about emergency response activities,” the draft order said.

“The FCC’s proposals are new as they apply to BIAS providers,” emailed Louis Peraertz, Wireless ISP Association, vice president-policy. “As with any such proposals, we are carefully reviewing them and considering how to respond.” Before extending mandatory DIRS to the satellite industry, the FCC should consider what satellites, constellations, and providers provide services that could be considered critical in emergencies, said Frontier Foundry's filing. If the agency can’t tell which satellite operators are required to maintain critical communications during national emergencies, “it will be difficult for the FCC to accurately rule on the issue,” Frontier Foundry said.