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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 123 / Wednesday, June 30, 2021 / Proposed Rules 911 callers may face 911 unavailability, 3 an estimated time that 911 service became unavailable, and 4 an estimate of when 911 services will be restored.
The Commission further proposes that service providers be required to include alternative means to reach emergency services, such as alternative contact information, at the request of the PSAP, on a per outage basis. The Commission proposes that a service provider should contact the PSAPs affected by 911
unavailability as soon as possible after discovery of an outage, but no later than 30 minutes after discovery to determine what, if any, alternative means of contact the PSAP would like made publicly available for the duration of the incident. The Commission proposes these elements to ensure that public notifications are accurate and easily understood by end-users and are accessible for individuals with disabilities. The Commission believes these elements also will reduce potential confusion and avoid inadvertently increasing burdens on PSAPs. In this respect, a description of the geographic scope of 911
unavailability, for example, will ensure that only those affected by 911
unavailability use alternate means other than 911 to contact emergency services.
For the same reasons, including the time at which 911 first became unavailable and the estimated time of restoration in notices will ensure end-users know when they should seek alternatives, updating consumers regarding restoration time will help redirect emergency callers back to 911, which in turn will help PSAPs return to normal operations. The Commission seeks comment on this proposal. Is the Commission including the right elements for effective public notification? Will those seeking emergency services find this information pertinent in their time of need? The Commission also seeks comment on best practices for describing geographic boundaries of affected areas. For example, a states borders are frequently known but an outage affecting a smaller area, or an area spanning state borders, may be more difficult to accurately describe. At what fidelity and how should this information be conveyed? The Commission also seeks comment on the potential costs and benefits of this proposal.
40. The Commission also seeks comment on this proposal in light of the currently presumptively confidential treatment of outage reports and the recent adoption of a Report and Order that provides direct access to NORS and
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Disaster Information Reporting System filings by certain public safety and emergency management agencies of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Tribal nations, territories, and Federal Government, provided that they follow safeguards adopted by the Commission.
NORS Information Sharing Report and Order. Information reported to the Commission under its part 4 reporting rules is presumed confidential due to its sensitive nature to both national security and commercial competitiveness. The Commission proposes that a subset of this outage report information be made publicly available, and at a less granular level than what it provided to the Commission on a confidential basis, in order to advise PSAPs and consumers when 911 service is unavailable and to arrange for alternate methods for consumers to contact PSAPs. The Commission believes that this approach would save lives and improve emergency outcomes involving, for example, illness and injury, and that the benefits of disclosure far outweigh the increase in the risk of national security or commercial competitiveness harms.
The Commission seeks comment on the relationship between the need for the confidentiality afforded reported part 4
outage information and the publics interest in 911 availability in times of critical need. Is there specific information that would be conveyed under this public notification proposal that could implicate national security or commercial competitiveness? How might the Commission modify the parameters of the proposed customer notification to address such concerns?
41. Given that network disruptions sometimes vary in duration, geographic scope, and intensity, the Commission seeks comment on whether and to what extent service providers can develop public notification content in partnership with PSAPs in advance of unplanned outages. The Commission also notes that PSAPs are best positioned to determine what contact information to disseminate to the public during a 911 outage and that PSAPs may wish to coordinate the message delivered by service providers with their own outreach via social media or other avenues. The Commission understands that in an outage affecting multiple PSAPs, any public notification will also need to include a geographic description of where callers may not be able to reach emergency services by dialing 911 to prevent possible caller confusion and misdirected emergency calls. As such, the Commission seeks comment on how PSAPs and service
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providers collectively can best develop public notification information in advance of 911 unavailability.
42. Notification Medium. The Commission proposes to require service providers to post public notification of 911 outages prominently on their websites and internet-based applications, such as provider-specific apps for mobile devices. This information should be quickly accessible, with one click, from the main page of a service providers website e.g., T-Mobile.com or Verizon.com, and be accessible for individuals with disabilities. The Commission believes that this will allow those seeking critical information on 911 unavailability during an emergency to obtain the information necessary to determine their next steps in procuring emergency services quickly without being inundated with information regarding 911
unavailability. Public notification in this manner may also avoid creating competing messaging with PSAPs that may choose to use affirmative outreach methods such as reverse 911 or other public notification systems to notify the public of a 911 outage. Because these require the consumer to take action, public notifications conveyed over websites and through mobile device apps do not actively alert the consumer like wireless emergency alerts and thus do not contribute to alerting fatigue, and may complement those active measures that may be utilized by local PSAPs.
43. The Commission acknowledges that there are many other methods to effectuate public notifications of disruptions to 911 availability: Text messages, emails, phone calls, social media, and posting on service provider websites and applications all provide near-real-time opportunities to update the public on how best to reach emergency services. Each has its pluses and minuses. For example, while they do not require affirmative action by the consumer, text messages are undeliverable to traditional wireline numbers and service providers may not have email addresses for customers. In addition, the Commission is concerned that methods of public notification requiring broadcasting 911
unavailability broadly may engender a lack of confidence in the ability to reach emergency services by dialing 911.
The Commission believes that public confidence in 911 is critical; indeed, the Commission has long sought to buttress the publics confidence in 911. 80 FR
3191. Consequently, the Commission believes that this proposal will best allow those seeking emergency assistance to determine alternative
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