STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MIGNON L. CLYBURN
Re: Amendments to Part 4 of the Commission’s Rules Concerning Disruptions to Communications,
PS Docket No. 15-80, ET Docket No. 04-35, PS Docket No. 11-82, Report and Order, Further 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and Order on Reconsideration.
Last week, as part of my #ConnectingCommunities tour, I had the privilege of visiting the 
Charleston County Consolidated 9-1-1 Center in North Charleston, South Carolina.  I learned about their
current implementation of text-to-911 – Charleston County has the distinction of being among the 
approximately eight percent of PSAPs nationwide with this capability – as well as their strategic plans for 
implementing Next Generation 9-1-1 service.  
Like many other PSAPs in the country, Charleston County is considering implementing an 
Emergency Services IP Network or ESINet, as the foundation for the provisioning of Next Generation 9-
1-1 service to its community.  These broadband enabled networks support the transmission of very large 
data files, such as pictures and videos, the sharing of data between PSAPs, the transfer of operations to 
other 9-1-1 centers, and many other notable benefits.  
Broadband networks and services, are the future of Next Generation 9-1-1, and accordingly, are 
critical to the nation’s emergency preparedness and crises management.  But our nation’s reliance on 
broadband networks extends far beyond emergency services, with broadband being an essential tool for 
anyone who wants to fully engage in our connected society.  Broadband is, as I often say, a connector to 
opportunities.  
And as the nation’s demand for broadband services increases, and providers continue to modify 
and improve their networks, it is imperative that the Commission’s network outage reporting rules keep 
pace. The Report and Order and Further Notice aim to do just that.  It is important to keep in mind, that 
the fundamental purpose of these rules is to collect and analyze data that could affect the nation’s 
security, public health and economic well-being – information that the Commission has no means of 
gathering on a consistent and reliable basis from any other source.  The data gathered by these reports 
helps providers, industry working groups, and Commission staff identify and address systemic 
vulnerabilities in order to improve network reliability and resiliency, and ideally, prevent future outages.
I applaud the providers’ commitment to assist the Commission in the fulfillment of its 
fundamental statutory mandate to promote safety of life and property, by protecting the nation’s 
communications networks.  I also recognize that executing new reporting requirements takes time, 
planning and resources, which is why I asked for sensible timelines for implementation of the reporting 
obligations in the Report and Order, and clarity on acceptable methodologies for allocating capacity 
when an outage only affects some PSAPs served by a mobile switching center.
Many thanks are due to the staff of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau for their 
hard work and continued dedication to ensuring that the nation’s communications infrastructure is 
reliable, resilient and secure.