T-Mobile and CCA: FirstNet Should Be Subject to Disaster Reporting Rules

T-Mobile and the Competitive Carriers Association last week said the FCC should make FirstNet subject to the agency’s network outage and disaster information reporting systems. The comments were filed in docket 21-341 as the FCC took reply comments on a January Further NPRM, which raised the matter (see 2406130023). "Every other commenter -- except FirstNet -- addressing this issue also supported the extension of outage reporting requirements to FirstNet,” T-Mobile said. The carrier cited AT&T’s February outage, which also affected FirstNet (see 2402220058). “The record demonstrates support for the FCC’s proposal to extend resiliency reporting to FirstNet and similarly notes the benefits FirstNet reporting would provide,” said CCA. In addition, the group raised competition issues: “Some wireless providers compete with FirstNet, and parity in terms of FCC reporting requirements along with increased transparency in terms of network outages and resiliency will put wireless providers on a more competitively neutral footing.” In initial comments, the FirstNet Authority argued against the proposed requirement. “Information about FirstNet’s network status, infrastructure, and assets is already included as part of AT&T’s DIRS and NORS reporting and therefore available to the FCC,” the authority said. Expanding the rules to “explicitly apply to FirstNet would be duplicative.”