NEWS
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D. C.  20554
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.
See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974).
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
January 10, 2013  David Goldman (202) 418-2400
Email: david.goldman@fcc.gov
STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL 
ON PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND SECURITY BUREAU REPORT
“IMPACT OF THE JUNE 2012 DERECHO ON COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS 
AND SERVICES”
“This past July I asked that the Commission investigate the communications failures spanning from 
the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest in the wake of the Derecho. Too many of us were left without 
communications and could not reach 9-1-1. That is simply unacceptable. We have a duty to find 
out what went wrong and to apply those lessons to make our networks more resilient.
“The report released today by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau details the serious 
service breakdowns both during and after the storm that the staff uncovered in our networks.
Tragically, many of these were avoidable interruptions involving a lack of back-up power to central 
offices or failures of the service providers’ monitoring systems. As a result of the staff’s efforts, 
some of these specific problems have already been corrected. But our work is not done. We must 
stay vigilant and make sure that what happened resulting from the Derecho does not happen in other 
parts of the country. Carriers should test their networks and ensure that plans are in place in case of 
an emergency. It is time for an honest accounting of the resiliency of our nation’s network 
infrastructure in the wireless and digital age. Today’s report is a good first step.”
– FCC –
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