Commenters on Storm Response Praise FCC, Seek Changes to DIRS, Infrastructure 'Hardening'

The FCC deserves praise for its response to 2017’s rush of storms but could improve its Disaster Information Reporting System, provide incentives or funding to strengthen communications infrastructure in remote areas, and establish a regional office in Puerto Rico, said commenters in docket 17-344 to a call for comments on communications resiliency and FCC handling of hurricanes Irma, Maria and Harvey.

While commission personnel “were exceedingly versatile and knowledgeable,” and DIRS is “a helpful resource,” it doesn’t accurately portray the situation, said APCO. “A cell site might have no backhaul, no capacity, and no ability to provide actual service, but not be reported in DIRS as out of service. This can lead to a fundamental disconnect between outage reports and reality.”

Nearly every commenter praised FCC flexibility on waivers during the disaster and swift response to the storms, and most included suggestions for improving DIRS. The “metrics” used in DIRS reports were inadequate to the scale of the disaster, said Spectrum Financial Partners, and carriers argued DIRS listings of wireless sites that are out isn’t the most useful information. Wireless carriers generally focus service restoration efforts on restoring coverage to geographic areas rather than restoring individual cellsites, T-Mobile said. The FCC should “modify DIRS to reflect the population without any service in a geographic area,” said the carrier.

CTIA said DIRS reporting should be “flexible,” but the Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB) asked the FCC to make DIRS “mandatory.” Cooperation “on the provision of information needs to be improved,” TRB said. “Relatively few” broadcasters participated in DIRS, said the Virgin Islands Public Broadcasting System (VIPBS), which also criticized federal agencies for paying much more attention to damages caused by Maria than by Irma. “Months after the Commission shut down Irma reporting, the Commission is still issuing daily Maria status reports,” VIPBS said. Verizon said DIRS was a useful tool that allowed it to assess the storms’ affects, and Comcast said it allowed the FCC to share useful outage information with other agencies. The commission should review “the ease of use of the DIRS interface,” Comcast said.

CTIA and carriers touted the wireless network resiliency cooperative framework and said it aided in disaster response. “It proved effective in enhancing service continuity and information sharing during and immediately after these historic storms,” CTIA said. Public Knowledge was critical and expressed concern about FCC oversight of repairs to network infrastructure. The agency should hold further proceedings on “wireless network accountability in the light of devastating events of force majeure,” PK said, citing a recent GAO report on wireless network resiliency. The FCC should use its authority to make sure victims of natural disasters don’t receive inadequate replacements for their destroyed communications infrastructure, PK said. Without “clear rules,” it said, “there is no way to ensure next-generation networks are a true upgrade for everyone.”

PK and commenters in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands said the FCC should use tools like the USF to bolster network infrastructure against natural disasters. Though funds were authorized case by case, the FCC should consider a permanent disaster fund to provide more certainty, PK said. U.S. Virgin Islands phone company Viya said the FCC should provide funding in “smaller island markets” for “hardening” infrastructure against future storms, and TRB said the commission should establish a “High Cost Fund” to compensate for the greater expense of deploying network infrastructure with Puerto Rico’s geography and topography.

Many suggested rule changes to cope with future storms. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Emergency Communications said the FCC should update rules for wireless priority service to reflect capabilities, and the Wireless Infrastructure Association said the FCC should work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and localities to ensure tower operators and owners have access to their sites in emergencies. Puerto Rico wireless provider Neptuno Media said the FCC should seek authority to ensure that restoring telecom services get more urgency after disasters. “Providing resources to the telecommunications industry and restoring power to key areas for telecommunications networks was not treated by the local government and, specifically, the government-owned power utility in Puerto Rico, as a priority,” said Neptuno. Hughes Networks said the FCC should act to make satellite-based communications a more widely used backup.

Some like localities such as Houston mentioned the efforts of amateur radio operators during the storms, and amateur radio association ARRL (formerly the American Radio Relay League) urged the FCC to change rules to facilitate amateur radio. The agency should do away with rules that limit data rates for amateur radio operators, and act to prevent private real estate covenants and homeowner associations from restricting the siting of amateur radio antennas, ARRL said.