ATIS Defends Disaster Reporting Petition

ATIS fired back at an Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials' opposition to the standards group’s petition for reconsideration or clarification of the FCC’s January outage reporting order (see 2406120043). APCO found the petition confusing. “ATIS’ request is clear, and there is adequate notice from an [Administrative Procedure Act] perspective to grant” the relief, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-346. ATIS had asked the FCC to clarify the application of its waiver of network outage reporting system filings during disaster information reporting system (DIRS) activations. “Granting ATIS’ request would facilitate service restoration by allowing service providers to focus on repairing and restoring the network, rather than on notifications,” ATIS said: “DIRS was adopted to provide a simplified and consistent process for service providers to report communications infrastructure status and situational awareness information during times of crisis.” In creating DIRS, the commission “acknowledged the need to reduce reporting-related burdens on service providers during major disaster and recovery events,” ATIS said.