STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER MIGNON L. CLYBURN
Re:  October 17, 2014 Report on Investigation of April 2014 Multi-State 911 Outages 
There are a number of points in this Report that I find alarming, including the fact that 11 million 
people were without 9-1-1 service for up to six hours. But what I find most disturbing is that despite the 
number of reports, NPRMs, and Orders about the importance of reliable 9-1-1 services, which the 
Commission has released during my tenure, this particular outage could have been prevented by better 
implementation of basic network management functions.  
The clear take away from this Report: No matter how advanced our communications systems 
become, technologies can never replace accountability, redundancy, and coordination with stakeholders.  
These principles should be fundamental for any entity, providing emergency communications services on 
behalf of a state or local government.
This is a wake-up call for all relevant stake holders, and I hope it will spur communications 
companies to engage in a race to the top in order to provide the most reliable emergency services possible.  
State and local governments, especially those who contract with private companies to provide 9-1-1 
services, should demand high quality service and I know that this Commission will continue monitoring 
companies and initiate, if necessary, a proceeding designed to ensure all 9-1-1 providers offer reliable 
service to the American public. 
I thank Admiral David Simpson and Michael Connelly and the other members of the Public Safety 
and Homeland Security Bureau who worked on this report.  I also thank my former colleague David 
Danner, the Chairman of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, for providing real world 
examples and his insights. I also want to recognize the NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsey.