Telcos, Cable Push Flexible Wireless Resiliency Effort; Utilities Urge Network Hardening

Telecom interests advised the FCC to encourage wireless network resiliency improvements through coordination with electric utilities, going easy on mandates. Utilities urged more telecom sector engagement with state and local authorities, and greater network protections, including through backup power. Comments were posted in docket 11-60 through Monday on a Jan. 3 Public Safety Bureau public notice seeking ways to increase such coordination amid emergencies (see 1901030037). Some telco and cable parties cited their backhaul efforts, responding to a Dec. 10 PN (see 1812100027).

CTIA said wireless network resiliency is improving through a "flexible approach" to adapt after each emergency. It backed an FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee working group effort to learn lessons from the response to October's Hurricane Michael and develop recommendations for improving communications and power company coordination. A wireless network resiliency cooperative framework and other voluntary arrangements give carriers "sufficient flexibility," said the Competitive Carriers Association. It said the FCC should encourage "constructive communications" between sectors, not impose "undue or unnecessary burdens" on carrier recovery.

The Department of Homeland Security is leading interindustry coordination, AT&T said: the FCC could productively "engage more actively" in the processes but "should not disrupt or burden" the efforts. "While there is room for improvement in the coordination between communications providers and power companies, there is no need for the Commission to take action ... because the [DHS] already has initiated a process," said NCTA. The American Cable Association backed BDAC efforts, suggesting the FCC prod large utilities to engage more actively with communications providers.

Improving information flow from utilities would spur wireless network restoration, T-Mobile said. "Loss of commercial power is a major cause of wireless network outages." The voluntary framework "has been extremely successful due to its flexibility," it said, opposing "prescriptive back-up power mandates." ATIS and the Communications Sector Coordinating Council generally said (here and here) the two sectors already coordinate substantially and suggested the FCC could encourage more. Iridium urged the FCC to account for the "significant role" it and other satellite providers play in emergency communications.

Push for earlier and regular telecom engagement with state and local authorities, and continue to work with federal entities, recommended the Edison Electric Institute, GridWise Alliance, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Utilities Technology Council. They said communications providers should harden their networks and design facilities "to avoid single points of failure." FCC policies discourage hardening through below-ground facilities and smart technology, and encourage pole attachments, they said. San Francisco's technology department said coordination can best be achieved by existing local, regional and state programs.

Keys to wireless resiliency are network redundancy, backup power and participation in local emergency operations centers, said AEP and Southern Co. They said the main obstacles to better coordination "are the number of affected communications providers and their apparent unwillingness to cooperate with each other." Fiber cuts "are mostly the result of initial road-clearing," they said, urging the FCC to examine whether and how its pole-attachment policies undermine wireless resiliency. FirstEnergy said a major hurdle to more intersector cooperation "is the pervasive expectation and frequent demand that regulated power companies provide services to unregulated communications providers at zero or reduced cost."

The new BDAC group is "a timely and important opportunity for all stakeholders" to learn from the response to Hurricane Michael, said Verizon, commenting on the second PN: "Let the new working group collaborate to determine any next steps to improving wireless backhaul for future disasters." The American Cable Association, NCTA (here) and NTCA (here) said the FCC shouldn't incorporate backhaul providers into the framework. USTelecom disagreed with the idea backhaul providers don't coordinate with wireless carriers. The California Public Utilities Commission said the FCC "may wish to adopt a nationwide rule ordering communications providers to share information with state and local authorities in a timely fashion."