Voice Providers, Public Safety at Odds on Loosening Outage Reporting

WASHINGTON, April 29, 2025 – Voice providers are at odds with public safety groups over whether the Federal Communications Commission should loosen its outage reporting requirements.

“The prescriptive requirements for outage reporting divert providers from focusing on the important task of restoring communications services quickly following network outages,” the group wrote in a Monday filing.

Reply comments came in Monday night for the FCC’s “delete, delete, delete” docket, an open-ended inquiry into rules companies would like to see the agency repeal. The agency would have to initiate a separate proceeding to go forward with nixing specific rules in most cases.

The FCC requires voice service providers to report 911 and 988 call centers of potential outages within 30 minutes and notify the agency within 72 hours. It also requires voice providers to submit daily reports on their infrastructure when its disaster reporting system is activated, and to submit a final status report within 24 hours of the system being deactivated.

In the initial round of delete comments, which commenters emphasized in their reply filings, telecom trade groups including USTelecom, NCTA, CTIA, and others, called for extending the 30-minute notification timeline for call centers or for loosening the 24-hour final report deadline.

“In general, the NYPSC believes that less reporting hinders local and state authorities from mobilizing assets to offset the loss of critical telecom infrastructure,” the New York State Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator, wrote in a Monday filing. The group added that it “strongly opposes the elimination or changes that would adversely affect state and local authorities’ ability to monitor and assist in resolving all types of telecommunications service outages.”

The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, a group of state and local officials operating 911 centers and other communications systems, said it “disagrees with those commenters who suggest that these 9-1-1 outage notification requirements should be amended or repealed.”

“Providing [emergency communications centers] with timely and actionable information empowers ECCs to make these decisions to promote continuity of essential 9-1-1 service,” the group's CEO Mel Maier wrote Monday.

The 911 deadline went into effect on April 15, and the final disaster reporting deadline, along with mandatory participation in the system, began in January. The agency sought comment last year on expanding disaster reporting to broadband providers and others.

NTCA, which represents rural broadband providers, some of which provide voice service, emphasized that daily disaster reporting was a heavy burden for smaller providers. Other groups representing smaller companies like the Competitive Carriers Association and ACA Connects voiced similar concerns about that and the 911 requirements.

“The obligation to submit daily infrastructure reports is burdensome, particularly for small businesses during an emergency in which [disaster reporting] would be activated,” NTCA wrote.

The Communications Workers of America urged the FCC to exercise caution.

“CWA disagrees and urges the Commission to not shoot itself in the foot through wholesale elimination of these reporting requirements,” the group wrote.