PUBLIC NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 445 12th St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 DA 16-949 August 19, 2016 PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND SECURITY BUREAU ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF 911 RELIABILITY CERTIFICATION SYSTEM FOR ANNUAL RELIABILITY CERTIFICATION PS Docket Nos. 13-75, 11-60 By this Public Notice, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (Bureau) announces that the Federal Communications Commission’s (Commission’s) online system for filing 911 reliability certifications1 has been reopened for filing the Annual Reliability Certification,2 due October 15, 2016.3 Covered 911 Service Providers4 that wish to begin submitting information for the Annual Reliability Certification may now do so through the Commission’s online portal at https://apps2.fcc.gov/rcs911/. The Commission’s rules require Covered 911 Service Providers to take reasonable measures to provide reliable 911 service with respect to three substantive requirements: (i) 911 circuit diversity; (ii) central office backup power; and (iii) diverse network monitoring. Covered 911 Service Providers are required to file annual certifications of compliance with specified best practices or reasonable alternative measures.5 Substantive certification requirements are set forth in section 12.4(c) of the Commission’s 1 See Improving 911 Reliability; Reliability and Continuity of Communications Networks, Including Broadband Technologies, Report and Order, 28 FCC Rcd 17476, 17534, para. 163 (2013) (911 Reliability Certification Order). This collection of information has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under control number 3060-1202. 2 911 Reliability Certification Order, 28 FCC Rcd at 17497-98, paras. 64-65. 3 October 15, 2016 is a Saturday; filings will therefore be accepted until Monday, October 17, 2016. See 47 CFR § 1.4(j) (stating that in the event a filing deadline falls on a holiday, to include Saturday and Sunday, “the document shall be filed on the next business day.”). 4 See 47 CFR § 12.4(a)(4) (defining Covered 911 Service Providers as entities that “[p]rovide[] 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities such as call routing, automatic location information (ALI), automatic number identification (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,” or that “[o]perate[] one or more central offices that directly serve a PSAP”). 5 See 47 CFR § 12.4. On July 30, 2015, the Commission released an Order on Reconsideration in this proceeding, clarifying that, under section 12.4 of the Commission’s rules, Covered 911 Service Providers may implement and certify an alternative measure for any of the specific certification elements, as long as they “provide an explanation of how such alternative measures are reasonably sufficient to mitigate the risk of failure. We believe that this should include an explanation of how the alternative will mitigate such risk at least to a comparable extent as the measures specified in our rules.” Improving 911 Reliability; Reliability and Continuity of Communications Networks, Including Broadband Technologies, Order on Reconsideration, 30 FCC Rcd 8650, 8651, para. 2 (2015). 2rules.6 Covered 911 Service Providers were required to file Initial Reliability Certifications by October 15, 2015, certifying as to substantial progress towards each of the three substantive certification requirements.7 Through the 2015 certification process, 220 companies filed Initial Reliability Certifications, and all of the Covered 911 Service Providers that filed certified that they had made substantial progress towards each of the three substantive certification requirements that applied to their respective companies.8 Covered 911 Service Providers are now required to file Annual Reliability Certifications by October 15, 2016, certifying as to full compliance with each of the three substantive certification requirements, or to alternative measures.9 Covered 911 Service Providers that wish to begin submitting certification information may register new users on the login page at https://apps2.fcc.gov/rcs911/. As with the Commission’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), there are two types of users: inputters and coordinators. Inputters only have access to information that they have submitted, while coordinators have access to all information submitted by their company. Users responsible for limited portions of a company’s certification (e.g., particular service areas or topics such as circuit diversity, backup power, or network monitoring) should register as inputters, while users responsible for overseeing each company’s certification as a whole should send a request to David Ahn (david.ahn@fcc.gov) or to John Healy (john.healy@fcc.gov) to be assigned coordinator status. For security purposes, these requests are handled on a case-by-case basis. Companies that serve numerous PSAPs or service areas may choose to enter their responses in an Excel spreadsheet, which is available for download on the main menu page.10 Once all certification information has been entered, the system provides a link to upload a signed attestation from a company’s Certifying Official that such information is true and correct.11 More detailed instructions on how to complete the certification are available as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) at https://apps2.fcc.gov/rcs911/911RCS_FAQ.html and in a User Manual posted on the main menu of the certification system. For further information about the certification system and filing process, please contact John Healy in the Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability Division of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau at (202) 418-2448 or john.healy@fcc.gov. For further information about the 911 reliability rules, please contact Joseph Schlingbaum in the Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability 6 47 CFR § 12.4(c). 7 911 Reliability Certification Order, 28 FCC Rcd at 17497-98, paras. 64-65 (noting two-year phase-in of certification requirements). 8 See 47 CFR § 12.4(d)(1) (defining “substantial progress” as “compliance with standards of the full certification in at least 50 percent of the covered 911 service provider’s critical 911 circuits, central offices that directly serve PSAPs, and independent monitored 911 service areas.”). 9 Id.; see also Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Announces Effective Dates of 911 Reliability Certification and PSAP Outage Notification Requirements, Public Notice, 29 FCC Rcd 13900 (2014). 10 Please note that only users registered as coordinators will have access to the Excel upload and download capability. 11 See 47 CFR § 12.4(a)(2)-(3) (defining Certifying Official as “[a] corporate officer . . . with supervisory and budgetary authority over network operations in all relevant service areas” and explaining attestation requirements). 3Division of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau at (202) 418-0829 or joseph.schlingbaum@fcc.gov . -FCC-