FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
WASHINGTON
OFFICE OF DA 11-328
THE CHAIRMAN
February 17, 2011
Kathleen M. Grub
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs, Policy & Communications
Verizon Communications
1300 I St. NW, Room 400W
Washington, DC USA 20005
Re: Failed 9-1-1 Calls During January 26, 2011 Snowstorm
Dear Ms. Grub,
The FCC has received reports that during the snowstorm that hit the
Washington D.C. region on January 26, 2011, approximately 8,300 wireless
9-1-1 calls to the Montgomery County Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP),
routed over the Verizon network, were not connected, and an additional 1,700
wireless calls to the Prince George's County PSAP were not connected. I know
that you will agree that any 9-1-1 call which is not connected can have serious
consequences, but the large number of missed 9-1-1 calls on January 26 is truly
alarming. I therefore request that Verizon provide an explanation of the causes
of this and similar failures, provide Verizon's assessment of the possibility of
occurrence in other locations and describe what actions Verizon is taking to
prevent recurrence of these problems.
Here is a synopsis of what we understand so far. Through our initial
discussions with various parties, including representatives of Verizon, we have
learned that the Montgomery County PSAP has fourteen trunks that handle
wireless calls, seven each from the Rockville and Hyattsville Selective Routers.
The trunks from these Selective Routers to the PSAPs are maintained by Verizon
(not Verizon Wireless), and there are separate trunks for wireline, wireless and
VoIP calls. At approximately 5:15 p.m. on January 26, Verizon's system
automatically took one of the wireless 9-1-1 trunks out of service. It is our
understanding that this was not an overload. We understand that it is normal in
large-scale emergencies for the call volume to exceed the trunk capacity, in
which case calls will be blocked until another trunk opens up. In this instance,
however, the Verizon system took each of the fourteen trunks handling wireless
calls out of service sequentially so that they could not receive any more calls. By
8:45 p.m., the problem had cascaded to the other thirteen 9-1-1 trunks handling
wireless calls, so that all of the trunks handling wireless 9-1-1 traffic in
Montgomery County were taken out of service by the system.
These trunks have working alarms, but Verizon did not notify the PSAPs
of the failure after the alarms went off. The Montgomery County PSAP
recognized the problem just prior to 11:00 p.m. and notified Verizon. By 11:15
p.m., Verizon had placed all the trunks back into service.
Similarly, eight of the ten trunks that serve wireless calls for the Prince
George's County PSAP were taken out of service automatically by Verizon on
January 26 by approximately 8:30 p.m. A ninth trunk was taken out shortly
thereafter. Four were restored by 10:30 p.m.; all trunks were finally restored by
approximately 11:00 p.m.
It is not clear what caused these individual trunks to be taken out of
service. Your experts have postulated that the increased call volume resulting
from the snowstorm created a timing problem on the trunks which caused them
to be automatically taken out of service. However, the Private Branch Exchange
(PBX) in the Montgomery County PSAP is a relatively new CS1000E, which has
the speed and capacity to handle the number of calls that were being routed.
The Prince George's County PSAP's PBX is older, but since the PBX has fewer
trunks connected to it, the PBX should be able handle the call volume. The slow
response of the PBX's does not appear to be the cause of the failures.
I would note that the events of January 26 are not unique and that other
similar 9-1-1 outages have occurred recently in the region. On December 17th,
2010, the Prince George's County PSAP and on July 25, 2010, the Montgomery
County PSAP experienced similar outages. The July 25, 2010 incident resulted
in delayed urgent medical attention for a caller who was unable to reach 9-1-1.
In all cases, Verizon did not notify the PSAPs when the outages occurred.
Instead, the PSAPs became aware of the outages only when they received
complaints from callers or were notified by another PSAP. The PSAPs then
notified Verizon.
We are particularly concerned that this problem may be widespread
across Verizon's footprint. We therefore request that Verizon investigate the
extent of the problem across its network and provide the following information by
March 10, 2011:
• Is this problem localized to the PSAPs off the Hyattsville and Rockville
Selective Routers?
• Was this the same problem that occurred in Fairfax County, Virginia on
January 26, 2011?
• Can this problem occur elsewhere in the nation?
• Has this problem occurred in other states and if so, in which states?
• Has this problem occurred with other brands of PBXs? Can it?
• Has this problem occurred when Centralized Automatic Message
Accounting (CAMA) trunks are not used?
• Has this problem occurred only with certain types of Selective
Routers?
In addition, we request that Verizon recommend potential remedial
actions, including:
1. How Verizon will prevent trunks from being taken out of service during
high calling events.
2. How Verizon will monitor the trunks to the PSAP and notify the PSAP
when the trunks fail or are taken out of service. Verizon needs to explain
how any new procedures ensure that the PSAPs are notified in a timely
manner.
3. How Verizon can provide the PSAP5 with their own monitoring capability.
The PBX in the PSAP may be able to provide ongoing trunk statistics.
Alternately, the PBX should be able to provide ongoing counts of wireline
9-1-1 calls and counts of wireless 9-1-1 calls.
4. Whether Verizon can use equipment other than CAMA trunks to connect
Selective Routers to the PSAPs. The PBXs in the Montgomery County
PSAP and Prince George's County PSAP have the capability to handle IP
traffic.
The ability to call 9-1-1 is critical to the safety of the public. This is
especially true during extreme weather events. The public rightly expects that
they can use 9-1-1 to reach the appropriate first responders in an emergency. In
addition to your written response, I request a meeting with appropriate
representatives from Verizon within the next two weeks to discuss your resolution
of this matter. Your office can contact Chantal Virgile at chantal.virgile@fcc.gov
or (202) 418-0056 so that we can schedule the meeting at a mutually convenient
time.
Sincerely yours,
Rear Admiral, USNR (Ret.)
Chief, Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau
cc: Nneka N. Ezenwa
Federal Regulatory Affairs
Verizon Communications