CTIA Seeks Coordinated Federal Approach on Disaster Recovery

The FCC, Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Federal Emergency Management Agency should “develop a coordinated approach” for communications companies for disaster response, CTIA recommended. It answered questions posed by the Public Safety Bureau on hurricane preparedness, in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 11-60. Companies need DHS access letters for the safe movement of response personnel, covering “transportation, security, access to fuel, curfews, ability to deploy resiliency services … and waiver of self-quarantine restrictions,” CTIA said. Response personnel “should be allowed to freely travel and participate in state, local or virtual emergency operations centers before, during, and immediately following a disaster” and should have “priority access to rapid COVID-19 testing,” the group said.