Notification by Common Carriers of Service Disruptions

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

47 CFR Part 63

[CC Docket No. 91-273; FCC 94-189]

Notification by Common Carriers of Service Disruptions

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: This Second Report and Order (Order) amends the Commission's

rules regarding the reporting of telephone network outages. The

amendment enlarges the outage reporting requirement. Previously the

rules required only outages that potentially affected 50,000 or more of

a carrier's customers to be reported. As amended, the rules require

outages potentially affecting 30,000 or more of a carrier's customers

to be reported. Fire-related incidents impacting 1,000 or more of a

carrier's lines and outages affecting ``special'' facilities (major

airports, 911 PSAPs, nuclear power plants, major military installations

and key government facilities) must also be reported under the amended

rule. As we stated in that NPRM the information provided by these rules

is necessary to improve the Commission's ability to monitor outages and

determine what steps may be necessary to ensure network reliability.

The amendment will provide the Commission with the additional

information it needs to perform this task.

EFFECTIVE DATE: September 7, 1994.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Robert E. Kimball, (202) 634-7150, Domestic Services Branch, Domestic

Facilities Division, Common Carrier Bureau.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Order

in CC Docket No. 91-273, FCC 94-189, adopted July 14, 1994, and

released August 1, 1994. The item is available for inspection and

copying during normal hours in the Commission's FCC Reference Center

(room 230), 1919 M St., NW., Washington, DC, or a copy may be purchased

from the duplicating contractor, International Transcription Service,

Inc. (202) 857-3800, 2100 M St., NW., Suite 140, Washington, DC 20037.

The Order will be published in the FCC Record.

OMB Review

The Office of Management and Budget approved the proposals

contained in the FNPRM and no substantive or material changes have been

made to the final requirements.

Title: Amendment of Part 63 of the Commission's Rules to Provide

for Notification by Common Carriers of Service Disruptions

(Sec. 63.100).

OMB Number: 3060-0484.

Expiration Date: 6/30/96.

Action: Revised collections.

Respondents: Business or other for profit.

Frequency of Response: On occasion. Initial report due 120 minutes

or 3 days after incident depending on number of potentially affected

customers and nature of disruption. Final report due twenty-eight or

thirty days after initial report, depending on nature of disruption.

Estimated Annual Burden: 200 responses; 5 hours each; 1000 hours

total. These estimates are the same as contained in the Commission's

request to OMB which accompanied the NPRM. The information to be

furnished is generally gathered by carriers during outages and is

presently being voluntarily provided, so the requirement is not

burdensome.

Paperwork Reduction: Public reporting burden for this collection of

information is estimated to average 5 hours per response, including the

time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources,

gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing

the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden

estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information,

including suggestions for reducing the burden, to the Federal

Communications Commission, Records Management Division, Room 234,

Paperwork Reduction Project (3060-0484), Washington, D.C. and to the

Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (3060-

0484), Washington, D.C. 20503.

Needs and Uses: Section 63.100 of the Commission's Rules, 47 CFR

63.100, is amended to provide for the collection of information which

we believe is essential to our mission of ensuring that the public is

protected from major disruptions to telephone services. The amendments

modify 47 CFR Sec. 63.100 to require that local exchange or

interexchange common carriers or competitive access providers that

operate either transmission or switching facilities and provide access

service or interstate or international telecommunications service

report outages that affect 30,000 or more customers or that affect

special facilities and report fire-related incidents impacting 1000 or

more lines. With such reports the FCC can monitor and take effective

action to ensure network reliability.

Analysis of Proceeding

1. We amend Sec. 63.100 to require, in place of the present

requirements, that selected facilities-based common carriers notify the

Commission in writing: (1) Within 120 minutes of the carrier's

knowledge that it is experiencing an outage that potentially affects

50,000 or more of its customers for 30 minutes or more, (2) within 120

minutes of the carrier's knowledge that it is experiencing an outage

which affects special offices and facilities and continues for 30

minutes or more, (3) within 3 days of the carrier's knowledge that it

is experiencing an outage potentially affecting 30,000 to 50,000 of its

customers for 30 minutes or more, and (4) within 3 days of the

carrier's knowledge that it is experiencing a fire-related incident

that impacts 1000 or more service lines for 30 minutes or more. These

initial reports, in a prescribed format, are to be served on the

Commission's monitoring watch officer, on duty 24 hours a day, by

facsimile or other recorded means. Not later than thirty days after any

reportable outage or incident under the proposed rules, the carrier

will file a final service report containing any relevant information

not contained in the initial report, including specification of the

root cause of the outage or incident and an analysis of any applicable

industry ``best practices'' recommended by the Network Reliability

Council, with the Chief of the Commission's Common Carrier Bureau.

Carriers are not required to report to the Commission outages affecting

nuclear power plants, major military installations and key government

facilities under the proposed rules, but they must report such outages,

under the terms outlined in the reporting requirements for special

facilities (with the exception that final reports, when requested by

the National Communications System, are due in twenty-eight days), to

the National Communications System. The National Communications System

will determine if national security/emergency preparedness concerns

would be adversely implicated by further reporting such outages, and,

as further reporting is determined to be appropriate in each instance,

report these outages to the Commission. The rules further require

interexchange carriers (IXCs), and local exchange carriers (LECs)

reporting tandem outages, to use real-time blocked calls to determine

whether criteria for reporting an outage have been reached. For

purposes of complying with the required 50,000 customer threshold,

IXCs, and LECs reporting tandem outages, would be required to report

outages where more than 150,000 calls are blocked during a 30 minute

period and, for purposes of complying with the 30,000 customer

threshold, to report outages where more than 90,000 calls are blocked

during a 30 minute period. Finally, the amended rule requires carriers

experiencing an outage reportable as having affecting a 911 facility to

notify the managers of that facility as soon as possible by any

electronic means so that measures may be taken to mitigate the effects

of the outage.

2. Present Sec. 63.100 of the Commission's Rules, which this Order

amends, was established in response to outage incidents that occurred

in 1990 and 1991, largely as a result of the introduction of new

technology into the telecommunications infrastructure. In January of

1990, for example, AT&T experienced a large scale service failure when

software used with its Signaling System 7 contained a coding error.

Other major interexchange carriers also experienced significant

outages. In June and July of 1991, local exchange carriers Pacific Bell

and Bell Atlantic experienced major outages. At that time, the

Commission had no systematic way by which to become informed quickly of

significant service disruptions and was unable to determine whether

certain kinds of technology or equipment threatened service

reliability. Present Sec. 63.100 provided a vehicle by which the

Commission became better and more quickly informed of certain

significant outages.

3. The Report and Order adopting present Sec. 63.100, 7 FCC Rcd

2010 (Released February 27, 1992), 56 FR 7883, March 5, 1992, requested

that the Network Reliability Council, a federal advisory committee

created by the Commission to provide advice to the Commission for

enhancing network reliability, study and recommend suitable additions

to the reporting requirement in Sec. 63.100. Section 63.100, as amended

in the Order, incorporates many of the outage reporting recommendations

of the Council. The Council's membership includes all sectors of the

telecommunications industry, as well as state regulators and

representatives of large and small telecommunications consumers. All

Council meetings are open to the public. Members of the public are

invited to present written submissions for the Council's consideration.

The final reporting recommendations, sent to the Commission on December

29, 1992, were the result of months of painstaking research by the

Threshold Reporting Group, a research committee of the Council composed

of industry and consumer telecommunications experts. A variety of

possible reporting thresholds and conditions were considered by these

experts, by the Council and by the Commission. (For a detailed research

summary and analysis, see the Final Recommendation of the Threshold

Reporting Group of the Network Reliability Council, December 15, 1992,

available in room 6325 of the Commission's offices at 2025 M Street

NW., Washington, DC 20554, or through the Commission's contracted

copier, International Transcription Service, 2100 M Street NW., Suite

140, Washington, DC 20037, phone 202/857-3800.)

4. The Commission studied the recommendations and concluded that,

with certain modifications, their establishment in the form of a

proposed new Sec. 63.100, while cost-effective and not unduly

burdensome to the reporting parties, would significantly enhance the

capacity of the Commission to monitor outages and to encourage the

industry to find ways to further ensure network reliability. The

Commission issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order and Further Notice of

Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in this matter on December 1, 1993, 58 FR

64280, December 6, 1993. The rules proposed therein are generally the

same as the amendments established by this Order. Sixteen comments and

fourteen reply comments to the NPRM were filed. The Commission

carefully considered all comments and has incorporated some of the

suggestions of commenters in the amendments. Certain questions such as

provisions for more equitable funding for reliability testing have been

referred to the Network Reliability Council for further

recommendations. The broader collection of information provided for in

the amendments is essential to the mission of the FCC and is intended

to protect the public from major disruptions to telephone services. To

do this, the Commission needs to become aware of a greater number of

outages, especially LEC switch outages and outages affecting facilities

whose importance is essential to the public welfare. The lower

threshold provided for in the amendments will increase by about three

times the number of LEC switch outages reported and will require the

reporting of outages affecting 911 emergency services, major airports,

nuclear power plants, major military installations and key government

facilities. With the information collected, the Commission will be able

to better monitor network reliability and take steps as needed to

prevent or mitigate outages. The information to be furnished by

carriers pursuant to these amendments or its equivalent is normally

collected by them, the collection burden has been minimized, and the

Commission estimates that the total annual reporting and recordkeeping

burden that will result from each collection of information is the same

as that reported to OMB with the Commission's NPRM.

Ordering Clauses

Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 1, 4(i), and 201 of the

Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. Secs. 151, 154 and

201, Sec. 63.100 of the Commission's Rules, 47 CFR 63.100, Is Amended

as set forth below, effective 30 days after publication in the Federal

Register.

It is Further Ordered, that, the Secretary shall cause a summary of

this Order to be published in the Federal Register which shall include

a statement describing how members of the public may obtain the

complete text of this Commission decision. The Secretary shall also

provide a copy of this Order to each state utility commission.

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 63

Communications common carries, Reporting and recordkeeping

requirements, Service disruptions.

Federal Communications Commission.

William F. Caton,

Acting Secretary.

Rule Changes

Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 63, is amended as

follows:

PART 63--EXTENSION OF LINES AND DISCONTINUANCE, REDUCTION, OUTAGE

AND IMPAIRMENT OF SERVICE BY COMMON CARRIERS; AND GRANTS OF

RECOGNIZED PRIVATE OPERATING AGENCY STATUS

1. The authority citation for part 63 continues to read as follows:

Authority: Sections 1, 4(i), 4(j), 201-205, 218 and 403 of the

Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. Secs. 151, 154(i),

154(j), 201-205, 218, and 403, unless otherwise noted.

2. Sec. 63.100 is revised to read as follows:

Sec. 63.100 Notification of service outage.

(a) As used in this section:

(1) Outage is defined as a significant degradation in the ability

of a customer to establish and maintain a channel of communications as

a result of failure or degradation in the performance of a carrier's

network.

(2) Customer is defined as a user purchasing telecommunications

service from a common carrier.

(3) Special offices and facilities are defined as major airports,

major military installations, key government facilities, nuclear power

plants and 911 public service answering points (PSAPs).

(4) An outage which potentially affects a 911 special facility is

defined as an outage which disrupts more than 25% of the lines to any

PSAP without providing automatic rerouting to an alternative PSAP.

(5) Major airports are defined as those airports described by the

Federal Aviation Administration as large or medium hubs. The member

agencies of the National Communications System (NCS) will determine

which of their locations are ``major military installations'' and ``key

government facilities.''

(6) An outage which potentially affects a major airport is defined

as an outage that disrupts 50% or more of the air traffic control links

or other FAA communications links to any major airport, any outage that

has caused an ARTCC or major airport to lose its radar, any ARTCC or

major airport outage that is likely to be of media interest, any outage

that causes a loss of both primary and backup facilities at any ARTCC

or major airport, and any outage to an ARTCC or major airport that is

deemed important by the FAA as indicated by FAA inquiry to the carrier

management personnel.

(7) A mission-affecting outage is defined as an outage that is

deemed critical to national security/emergency preparedness (NS/EP)

operations of the affected facility by the National Communications

System member agency operating the affected facility.

(b) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or

competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching

facilities and provides access service or interstate or international

telecommunications service, that experiences an outage which

potentially affects 50,000 or more of its customers on any facilities

which it owns, operates or leases, must notify the Commission if such

outage continues for 30 or more minutes. Satellite carriers and

cellular carriers are exempt from this reporting requirement.

Notification must be served on the Commission's Monitoring Watch

Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the FCC headquarters building in

Washington, D.C., or on a secondary basis it may be served on the

Commission's Watch Officer on duty at the FCC's facility at Grand

Island, Nebraska. The notification must be by facsimile or other record

means delivered within 120 minutes of the carrier's first knowledge

that the service outage potentially affects 50,000 or more customers,

if the outage continues for 30 or more minutes. Notification shall

identify a contact person who can provide further information, the

telephone number at which the contact person can be reached, and what

information is known at the time about the service outage including:

the date and estimated time (local time at the location of the outage)

of commencement of the outage; the geographic area affected; the

estimated number of customers affected; the types of services affected

(e.g. interexchange, local, cellular); the duration of the outage, i.e.

time elapsed from the estimated commencement of the outage until

restoration of full service; the estimated number of blocked calls

during the outage; the apparent or known cause of the incident,

including the name and type of equipment involved and the specific part

of the network affected; methods used to restore service; and the steps

taken to prevent recurrences of the outage. Carriers must indicate,

when specifying the types of services affected by any reportable

outage, when 911 is one of those services, whether more than 25% of the

lines to any PSAP were disrupted and there was no automatic rerouting

to an alternate PSAP. The report shall be captioned Initial Service

Disruption Report. Lack of any of the above information shall not delay

the filing of this report. Not later than thirty days after the outage,

the carrier shall file with the Chief, Common Carrier Bureau, a Final

Service Disruption Report providing all available information on the

service outage, including any information not contained in its Initial

Service Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of

the outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application

in the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards

identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or

ameliorate outages of the reported type.

(c) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or

competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching

facilities and provides access service or interstate or international

telecommunications service, that experiences an outage which

potentially affects at least 30,000 and less than 50,000 of its

customers on any facilities which it owns, operates or leases, must

notify the Commission if such outage continues for 30 or more minutes.

Satellite carriers and cellular carriers are exempt from this reporting

requirement. Notification must be served on the Commission's Monitoring

Watch Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the FCC headquarters building

in Washington, DC, or on a secondary basis it may be served on the

Commission's Watch Officer on duty at the FCC's facility at Grand

Island, Nebraska. The notification must be by facsimile or other record

means delivered within 3 days of the carrier's first knowledge that the

service outage potentially affects at least 30,000 but less than 50,000

customers, if the outage continues for 30 or more minutes.

Notification shall identify the carrier and a contact person who

can provide further information, the telephone number at which the

contact person can be reached, and what information is known at the

time about the service outage including: the date and estimated time

(local time at the location of the outage) of commencement of the

outage; the geographic area affected; the estimated number of customers

affected; the types of services affected (e.g. interexchange, local,

cellular); the duration of the outage, i.e. time elapsed from the

estimated commencement of the outage until restoration of full service;

the estimated number of blocked calls during the outage; the apparent

or known cause of the incident, including the name and type of

equipment involved and the specific part of the network affected;

methods used to restore service; and the steps taken to prevent

recurrences of the outage. Carriers must indicate, when specifying the

types of services affected by any reportable outage, when 911 is one of

those services whether more than 25% of the lines to any PSAP were

disrupted and there was no automatic rerouting to an alternate PSAP.

The report shall be captioned Initial Service Disruption Report. Lack

of any of the above information shall not delay the filing of this

report. Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall

file with the Chief, Common Carrier Bureau, a Final Service Disruption

Report providing all available information on the service outage,

including any information not contained in its Initial Service

Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the

outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in

the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards

identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or

ameliorate outages of the reported type.

(d) Any local exchange or interexchange carrier or competitive

access provider that operates transmission or switching facilities and

provides access service or interstate or international

telecommunications service that experiences a fire-related incident in

any facilities which it owns, operates or leases that impacts 1000 or

more service lines must notify the Commission if the incident continues

for a period of 30 minutes or longer. Satellite carriers and cellular

carriers are exempt from this reporting requirement. Notification must

be served on the Commission's Monitoring Watch Officer, on duty 24

hours a day in the FCC headquarters building in Washington, DC, or on a

secondary basis it may be served on the Commission's Watch Officer on

duty at the FCC's facility at Grand Island, Nebraska. The notification

must be by facsimile or other recorded means delivered within 3 days of

the carrier's first knowledge that the incident is fire-related,

impacting 1000 or more lines for thirty or more minutes. Notification

shall identify the carrier and a contact person who can provide further

information, the telephone number at which the contact person can be

reached, and what information is known at the time about the service

outage including: the date and estimated time (local time at the

location of the outage) of commencement of the outage; the geographic

area affected; the estimated number of customers affected; the types of

services affected (e.g. interexchange, local cellular); the duration of

the outage, i.e. time elapsed from the estimated commencement of the

outage until restoration of full service; the estimated number of

blocked calls during the outage; the apparent or known cause of the

incident, including the name and type of equipment involved and the

specific part of the network affected; methods used to restore service;

and the steps taken to prevent recurrences of the outage. Carriers must

indicate, when specifying the types of services affected by any

reportable outage, when 911 is one of those services whether more than

25% of the lines to any PSAP were disrupted and there was no automatic

rerouting to an alternate PSAP. The report shall be captioned Initial

Service Disruption Report. Lack of any of the above information shall

not delay the filing of this report. Not later than thirty days after

the incident, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Common Carrier

Bureau, a Final Report providing all available information on the

incident, including any information not contained in its Initial Report

and detailing specifically the root cause of the incident and listing

and evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case

of any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network

Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate incidents of the

reported type.

(e) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or

competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching

facilities and provides access service or interstate or international

telecommunications service, that experiences an outage on any

facilities which it owns, operates or leases which potentially affects

special offices and facilities must notify the Commission if such

outage continues for 30 or more minutes regardless of the number of

customers affected. Satellite carriers and cellular carriers are exempt

from this reporting requirement. Notification must be served on the

Commission's Monitoring Watch Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the

FCC headquarters building in Washington, DC, or on a secondary basis it

may be served on the Commission's Watch Officer on duty at the FCC's

facility at Grand Island, Nebraska. The notification must be by

facsimile or other record means delivered within 120 minutes of the

carrier's first knowledge that the service outage potentially affects a

special facility, if the outage continues for 30 or more minutes.

Notification shall identify a contact person who can provide further

information, the telephone number at which the contact person can be

reached, and what information is known at the time about the service

outage including: the date and estimated time (local time at the

location of the outage) of commencement of the outage; the geographic

area affected; the estimated number of customers affected; the types of

services affected (e.g. 911 emergency services, major airports); the

duration of the outage, i.e. time elapsed from the estimated

commencement of the outage until restoration of full service; the

estimated number of blocked calls during the outage; the apparent or

known cause of the incident, including the name and type of equipment

involved and the specific part of the network affected; methods used to

restore service; and the steps taken to prevent recurrences of the

outage. Carriers must indicate, when specifying the types of services

affected by any reportable outage, when 911 is one of those services

whether more than 25% of the lines to any PSAP were disrupted and there

was no automatic rerouting to an alternate PSAP. The report shall be

captioned Initial Service Disruption Report. Lack of any of the above

information shall not delay the filing of this report. Not later than

thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief,

Common Carrier Bureau, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all

available information on the service outage, including any information

not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing

specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating

the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best

practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability

Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type. Under

this rule, carriers are not required to report outages affecting

nuclear power plants, major military installations and key government

facilities to the Commission. Report at these facilities will be made

according to the following procedures:

(1) When there is a mission-affecting outage, the affected facility

will report the outage to the National Communications System (NCS) and

call the service provider in order to determine if the outage is

expected to last 30 minutes. If the outage is not expected to, and does

not, last 30 minutes, it will not be reported to the FCC. If it is

expected to last 30 minutes or does last 30 minutes, the NCS, on the

advice of the affected special facility, will either:

(i) Forward a report of the outage to the Commission, supplying the

information for initial reports affecting special facilities specified

in this section of the Commission's Rules;

(ii) Forward a report of the outage to the Commission, designating

the outage as one affecting ``special facilities,'' but reporting it at

a level of detail that precludes identification of the particular

facility involved; or

(iii) Hold the report at the NCS due to the critical nature of the

application.

(2) If there is to be a report to the Commission, a written or oral

report will be given by the NCS within 120 minutes of an outage to the

Commission's Monitoring Watch Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the

FCC headquarters building in Washington, DC, or on a secondary basis it

may be served on the Commission's Watch Officer on duty at the FCC's

facility at Grand Island, Nebraska. If the report is oral, it is to be

followed by a written report the next business day. Those carriers

whose service failures are in any way responsible for the outage must

consult with NCS upon its request for information.

(3) If there is to be a report to the Commission, the service

provider will provide a written report to the NCS, supplying the

information for final reports for special facilities required by this

section of the Commission's rules. The service provider's final report

to the NCS will be filed within 28 days after the outage, allowing the

NCS to then file the report with the Commission within 30 days after

the outage. If the outage is reportable as described in paragraph

(e)(2) of this section, and the NCS determines that the final report

can be presented to the Commission without jeopardizing matters of

national security or emergency preparedness, the NCS will forward the

report as provided in either paragraphs (e)(1)(i) or (e)(1)(ii) of this

section to the Commission.

(f) If an outage is determined to have affected a 911 facility so

as to be reportable as a special facilities outage, the carrier whose

duty it is to report the outage to the FCC shall as soon as possible by

telephone or other electronic means notify any official who has been

designated by the management of the affected 911 facility as the

official to be contacted by the carrier in case of a telecommunications

outage at that facility. The carrier shall convey all available

information to the designated official that will be useful to the

management of the affected facility in mitigating the affects of the

outage on callers to that facility.

(g) In the case of LEC end offices, carriers will use the number of

lines terminating at the office for determining whether the criteria

for reporting an outage has been reached. In the case of IXC or LEC

tandem facilities, carriers must, if technically possible, use real-

time blocked calls to determine whether criteria for reporting an

outage have been reached. Carriers must report IXC and LEC tandem

outages where more than 150,000 calls are blocked during a period of 30

or more minutes for purposes of complying with the required 50,000

potentially affected customers threshold and must report such outages

where more than 90,000 calls are blocked during a period of 30 or more

minutes for purposes of complying with the 30,000 potentially affected

customers threshold. Carriers may use historical data to estimate

blocked calls when required real-time blocked call counts are not

possible. When using historical data, carriers must report incidents

where more than 50,000 calls are blocked during a period of 30 or more

minutes for purposes of complying with the required 50,000 potentially

affected customers threshold and must report incidents where more than

30,000 calls are blocked during a period of 30 or more minutes for

purposes of complying with the 30,000 potentially affected customers

threshold.

[FR Doc. 94-19081 Filed 8-5-94; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6712-01-M