Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
‘May 10, 2016
DA 16-525
Small Entity Compliance Guide
Improving 911 Reliability; Reliability and Continuity of Communications 
Networks, Including Broadband Technologies
Order on Reconsideration
FCC 15-95
PS Docket Nos. 11-60 and 13-75
Released:  July 30, 2015
This Guide is prepared in accordance with the requirements of Section 212 of 
the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996.  It is intended 
to help small entities—small businesses, small organizations (non-profits), and 
small governmental jurisdictions—comply with the new rules adopted in the 
above-referenced FCC rulemaking docket(s).  This Guide is not intended to 
replace the rules and, therefore, final authority rests solely with the rules.  
Although we have attempted to cover all parts of the rules that might be 
especially important to small entities, the coverage may not be exhaustive.  As a 
result, in any civil or administrative action against a small entity for a violation 
of a rule or rules, the content of the Small Entity Compliance Guide may be 
considered only as evidence of the reasonableness or appropriateness of 
proposed fines, penalties or damages.  This Guide may, perhaps, not apply in a 
particular situation based upon the circumstances, and the FCC retains the 
discretion to adopt approaches on a case-by-case basis that may differ from this 
Guide, where appropriate.  Any decisions regarding a particular small entity 
will be based on the statute and regulations.  
In any civil or administrative action against a small entity for a violation of 
rules, the content of the Small Entity Compliance Guide may be considered as 
evidence of the reasonableness or appropriateness of proposed fines, penalties or 
damages.  Interested parties are free to file comments regarding this Guide and 
the appropriateness of its application to a particular situation; the FCC will 
consider whether the recommendations or interpretations in the Guide are 
appropriate in that situation. The FCC may decide to revise this Guide without 
public notice to reflect changes in the FCC’s approach to implementing a rule, 
or to clarify or update the text of the Guide.  Direct your comments and 
recommendations, or calls for further assistance, to the FCC’s Consumer 
Center:
1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322)  
TTY: 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322)  
Fax: 1-866-418-0232
2COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS
Objectives of the Proceeding
In this Order on Reconsideration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) 
amended Section 12.4 of its rules adopted in December 2013.  This rule requires 911 service providers to 
take “reasonable measures” to provide reliable 911 service.  Providers subject to the rules, including small 
entities, can comply with the reasonable measures requirement by either implementing certain specific 
industry “best practices,” or in some circumstances by implementing alternative measures that are 
reasonably sufficient to ensure reliable 911 service.  
The Commission originally adopted these rules in the wake of the devastating impact from the 
unanticipated “derecho” storm in June 2012.  This storm swiftly struck the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic 
United States, leaving millions of Americans without 911 service and revealing significant, but avoidable, 
vulnerabilities in 911 network architecture, maintenance, and operation.  After a comprehensive inquiry 
into the causes of 911 outages during the derecho, as well as 911 network reliability more generally, the 
FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB or Bureau) determined that many of these 
failures could have been mitigated or avoided entirely through implementation of network-reliability best 
practices and other sound engineering principles. 
The Commission’s reliability rules apply to all “Covered 911 Service Providers,” including any entity that 
(1) provides 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities such as call routing, automatic location information (ALI), 
automatic number information (ANI), or the functional equivalent of those capabilities, directly to a 
public safety answering point (PSAP), statewide default answering point, or appropriate local emergency 
authority (as that term is defined elsewhere in the Commission’s rules); or (2) operates one or more 
central offices that directly serve a PSAP.  For purposes of these rules, a central office “directly serves a 
PSAP” if it (1) hosts a selective router or ALI/ANI database (2) provides functionally equivalent NG911 
capabilities, or (3) is the last service-provider facility through which a 911 trunk or administrative line 
passes before connecting to a PSAP.  This definition encompasses entities that provide capabilities to 
route 911 calls and associated data such as ALI and ANI to the appropriate PSAP, but not entities that 
merely provide the capability for customers to originate 911 calls.  Thus, generally, the reliability rules 
will not apply to wireless providers, VoIP providers, Internet service providers (ISPs), or commercial data 
centers – unless they provide any of the foregoing functions.
Rules That the Commission Amended
The FCC requires all Covered 911 Service Providers to certify annually to certain basic measures in the 
three substantive areas (i.e., circuit auditing, central office backup power, and network monitoring).  If a 
Covered 911 Service Provider believes that one or more requirements of the rule are not applicable to its 
network, it must provide a brief explanation of why it believes any such requirement does not apply.  The 
Commission delegates to the Bureau the responsibility to review the certifications and take additional 
action as appropriate, and the authority and responsibility to develop the certification form and filing 
system.  The reliability certifications are subject to penalties for false or misleading statements both under 
the United States Code and the Commission’s rules.  Certifications shall be accompanied by a statement 
explaining the basis for such certification and shall be subscribed to as true under penalty of perjury in the 
form set forth in section 1.16 of the Commission’s rules.  
Effect of Certification.  Under the certification process, a Covered 911 Service Provider that performs all 
the certification elements in a substantive area identified specifically in the rule will be deemed to comply 
with the requirement to take reasonable measures in that area.  This result is subject only to any 
determination the Commission or as delegated, the Bureau, may make afterward, based on complaints, 
outage reports or other information, that the Covered 911 Service Provider did not, in fact, perform as 
3claimed in its certification.  If, however, a Covered 911 Service Provider certifies that it has taken 
alternative measures to mitigate the risk of failure, or that a certification element is not applicable to its 
network, its certification is subject to a more detailed Bureau review.  In such cases, the Covered 911 
Service Provider must provide an explanation of its alternative measures and why they are reasonable 
under the circumstances, or why the certification element is not applicable.  The Bureau will consider a 
number of factors in determining whether the particular alternative measures are reasonably sufficient to 
ensure reliable 911 service.  Such factors may include the technical characteristics of those measures, the 
location and geography of the service area, the level of service ordered by the PSAP, and state and local 
laws (such as zoning and noise ordinances).  If the Bureau’s review indicates that a provider’s alternative 
measures are not reasonably sufficient to ensure reliable 911 service, the Bureau will engage with the 
provider and other interested stakeholders (e.g., affected PSAPs) to address any shortcomings.  To the 
extent that such a collaborative process does not yield satisfactory results, the Bureau may order remedial 
action consistent with its delegated authority. 
Nature of the Amendments Made in the Order on Reconsideration
The Order on Reconsideration clarified that the rules are intended to provide flexibility for Covered 911 
Service Providers to rely on alternative measures as to all aspects of addressing circuit diversity, central 
office backup power, and network monitoring, where they can demonstrate that such alternative measures 
are reasonable under the circumstances to mitigate the risk of failure.   With respect to circuit diversity, 
the order also provided additional guidance with respect to the adequacy of alternative measures.  First, 
providers should include an assessment of the technical feasibility of circuit audits and tagging in light of 
the provider’s network architecture.  Second, it will not be considered sufficient or reasonable to respond 
that no circuit diversity measures are necessary.  Third, the order recognized that there has been a shift in 
911 network architecture from facilities owned and operated by a single provider to a combination of 
network transport and data processing elements that may be provided by multiple entities.   However, it 
emphsized that contracting out certain functions does not absolve individual entities of their respective 
obligations for reliable 911 service.  In these situations, the Commission’s assessment of alternative 
measures will be informed, in part, by responses identifying the parties involved, as well as details about 
the contractual provisions – or lack thereof – governing such relationships (e.g., service level 
agreements).    
Certification Phase-In.   The rules, including the underlying obligation to take reasonable measures to 
provide reliable 911 service, became effective on Feb. 18, 2014.  The Order on Reconsideration was 
released on July 30, 2015 and became effective on Oct. 7, 2015.  The first certifications were due to the 
Commission on Oct. 15, 2015.  
Impact on Small Business
The rules’ certification requirement applies to all “Covered 911 Service Providers,” without exception.   
In developing the rules, the Commission declined to create a specific waiver procedure for entities, 
including small and/or rural entities, to seek exemption from the rules.  While the Commission 
acknowledged that small or rural service providers may have limited resources or operate in remote areas, 
the Commission declined to establish two tiers of 911 reliability based on economics or geography.  
Moreover, the rules allow flexibility for small or rural providers to comply with those rules in the manner 
most appropriate for their networks, and certain requirements will, by their nature, only apply to larger 
providers.  For example, some small service providers monitor their networks directly from a central 
office and may not have separate NOCs; in such cases, the provider could certify that, while it does not 
have diverse aggregation points supplying telemetry data to diverse NOCs, it has taken reasonable 
alternative measures to ensure that the monitoring network in its central office is diverse.  The 
certification approach allows flexibility for small or rural providers to comply with the rules in the 
4manner most appropriate for their networks, and certain requirements will, by their nature, only apply to 
larger providers.  
Recordkeeping and Other Compliance Requirements
The Commission requires Covered 911 Service Providers to maintain for two years the records 
supporting each annual certification and to make relevant records available to the Commission upon 
request.  For providers with existing electronic recordkeeping capabilities, these records must be 
maintained in an electronic format for ease of access and review.  While certifications require only a brief 
description of alternative measures, the Commission reserves the right to request additional information, 
at the time of certification or thereafter, to verify the accuracy of a certification or determine whether 
alternative measures are reasonable.  Examples of such records include diagrams of network routing, 
records of circuit audits, backup power deployment and maintenance records, and documentation of 
network monitoring routes and capabilities.  
Weblink
Improving 911 Reliability, Order on Reconsideration, FCC 15-95 (adopted July 29, 2015; released July 
30, 2015)
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-95A1.docx
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-95A1.pdf
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-95A1.txt
Statement by Commissioner Michael O’Rielly (released July 30, 2015)
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-95A2.docx
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-95A2.pdf
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-95A2.txt  
Improving 911 Reliability, Erratum, FCC 15-95 (adopted and released Sept. 11, 2015)
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-335208A1_Erratum.docx