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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 123 / Wednesday, June 30, 2021 / Proposed Rules into whether the service provider failed to file its 911 reliability certifications.
The Commission seeks comment on these proposals, their costs and benefits, as well as on potential alternatives for service providers to supply this information to the Commission.

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D. Administrative Line Definition 49. The Commission defines a covered 911 service provider in part as an entity that operates one or more central offices that directly serve a PSAP. For purposes of this section, a central office directly serves a PSAP if it . . . is the last service-provider facility through which a 911 trunk or administrative line passes before coming to a PSAP. 47 CFR
9.19a4iB. Under the current rules, a service provider that provides phone service to a PSAP but does not provide specific 911-related services to the PSAP is considered a covered 911
service provider due to its provision of an administrative line. Neither the Commissions rules nor its precedent presently define the term administrative line for purposes of the Commissions 911 reliability rules.
The Commission proposes to define administrative line for the purpose of its 911 reliability framework as a business line or line group that connects to a PSAP but is not used as the default or primary route over which 911 calls are transmitted to the PSAP. The Commission seeks comment on this proposed definition. The Commission anticipates that this clarification will simplify service providers determination of whether they are an originating service provider or a covered 911 service provider. The Commission believes that this, in turn, will reduce the potential that a service provider fails to file required 911 reliability certifications. This proposal appears to only accrue benefits, but the Commission nevertheless seeks comment on its potential benefits and costs. The Commission seeks comment on this analysis and asks whether there are any potential ramifications from this proposal of which the Commission is not aware. Commenters suggesting alternatives to this proposal should also include comment on anticipated costs and benefits.
E. Codifying Adopted Rules 50. In 2016, the Commission adopted a Report and Order that modernized the Commissions network outage reporting rules. 81 FR 45055 2016 Part 4 Order.
One of those requirements, however, was not at the time codified in the Code of Federal Regulations. The part 4 rules exempt satellite and terrestrial wireless
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providers from reporting outages that potentially affect airports, and the 2016
Part 4 Order extended that exemption to all special offices and facilities, and extended the wireless exemption for satellite and terrestrial wireless carriers to all special offices and facilities. 47
CFR 4.9c2iii, e1iv; 2016 Part 4
Order. The Commission proposes to codify these changes to its rules in the Code of Federal Regulations, and seeks comment on this proposal.
F. Compliance Timeframes 51. The Commission proposes to require originating service providers and covered 911 service providers to comply with any adopted rules that it has proposed to harmonize PSAP outage notification requirements and ensure the receipt by PSAPs of more actionable 911 outage information by April 1, 2022.
The Commission believes that the revisions proposed in this document constitute only minor changes to existing procedures and therefore believe that the time between adoption of the rules, as well as subsequent Office of Management and Budget OMB
approval, and the compliance date would be sufficient. The Commission seeks comment on this assessment. The Commission seeks comment on whether allowing additional time for smalland medium-sized businesses to comply with the requirements the Commission proposes in this document would serve the public interest.
52. The Commission proposes to require originating service providers and covered 911 service providers to update and maintain accurate contact information for officials designated to receive outage notifications at each PSAP in areas they serve no later than April 1, 2022. While the Commission expects that many originating service providers and covered 911 service providers will already have accurate contact information on hand for most if not all of the PSAPs in their service areas, the Commission seeks to allow sufficient time for them to further develop and implement those procedures pursuant to the requirements that the Commission proposes in this document for example, by developing and transmitting an email survey to their the best-known PSAP
email addresses, following up as appropriate, and identifying and remedying any gaps in their PSAP
contact lists. The Commission seeks comment on this approach.
53. In addition, the Commission proposes that its 911 unavailability public notification framework, which would require originating and covered 911 service providers to provide their
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customers with notification of certain disruptions to 911 service that result in the unavailability of 911 to reach emergency services, take effect no later than June 1, 2022. The proposal regarding contact information, discussed above, will give service providers the opportunity to further coordinate with PSAPs to determine, in advance of disruptions to 911
availability, any alternative contact information that the PSAPs wish to convey to the public. The Commission anticipates that service providers may need more time to develop a locationbased web page to provide public notification of 911 unavailability than in developing systems to update and maintain accurate contact information for official designated to receive outage notifications. The Commission seeks comment on this proposal.
G. Benefits and Costs 54. For all foregoing proposals, the Commission estimates the costs that its proposed rules would impose on all service providers of approximately a $2,398,000 one-time cost and a $4,557,000 annually recurring cost. The Commission tentatively concludes that the benefits of PSAP outage notification will be well in excess of these costs.
Public safety benefits, however, are difficult to quantify. This difficulty in quantification, however, does not diminish in any way the benefits of providing outage information to PSAPs.
The Commission finds that the benefits attributable to outage notification are substantial and may have significant positive effects on the abilities of PSAPs to safeguard the health and safety of residents during outages that threaten residents ability to reach 911. In particular, the Commission expects that both the PSAP notification proposals and the customer notification proposals will provide the information necessary to allow consumers to reach emergency services more quickly during an outage potentially affecting 911, thus reducing first responder times and improving public health and safety. The Commission urges commenters to supply detailed examples of likely benefits and estimates of their value where possible.
55. The Commissions one-time cost estimate of $2,398,000 consists of $50,000 to create an email survey to biannually solicit PSAP contact information, $99,000 to update PSAP
outage notification templates, and $2,249,000 to implement a websitebased framework that companies can use to notify their customers about outages. The Commissions estimate that annually recurring costs of $4,557,000

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