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 STATEMENT  OF  CHAIRMAN  MICHAEL  K.  POWELL 
 Re:  New  Part  4  of  the  Commission’s  Rules  Concerning  Disruptions  to  Communications;  ET  Docket  No.  04-  35,  Report  and  Order 
 The  foundation  of  our  homeland  security  agenda  is  a  reliable  telecommunications  infrastructure.  With  support  from  the  Department  of  Homeland  Security,  today’s  Report  and 
 Order  helps  to  ensure  that  foundation  is  properly  laid. 
 With  Americans  depending  on  telecommunications  for  everything  from  banking  to  paging,  it  is  imperative  that  our  systems  run  reliably.  Our  current  outage  reporting  requirements 


 focus  on  the  wireline  network.  Although  these  requirements  have  been  successful  in  recognizing  and  correcting  certain  causes  of  service  disruptions,  it  would  be  imprudent  to  focus  solely  on 
 wireline  networks  as  our  telecommunications  infrastructure  becomes  increasingly  diverse.  Today’s  Order  adopts  a  technology  neutral  metric  to  be  used  across  all  telecommunications 
 networks. 
 By  requiring  mandatory  outage  reports  of  carriers  we  are  facilitating  a  prompt  discovery  of  outages  and  assuring  that  first  responders,  government  leaders  and  citizens  will  be  able  to 


 quickly  regain  access  to  the  services  they  depend  on.  Today’s  Order  applies  a  new  common  metric  of  “user-  minutes”  potentially  affected  by  an  outage.  This  new  metric  will  guarantee  that 
 all  outages  are  reported  and  corrected.  Additionally,  the  rules  adopted  today  revise  our  previous  911/  E911  outage  reporting  criteria  further  protecting  citizens  in  times  of  crisis. 


 Simplifying  the  time  calculation  for  filing  reports  and  providing  an  electronic  template  will  help  reduce  the  burden  on  carriers  who  must  file  a  report.  The  streamlining  of  the  reporting 
 requirements  strikes  a  balance  between  the  Commission’s  need  to  be  appraised  of  outages,  while  at  the  same  time  minimizing  burden  on  the  industry.  The  Order  also  recognizes  that  much  of  the 
 information  provided  in  these  reports  will  contain  sensitive  homeland  security  information.  In  order  to  prevent  this  information  from  falling  into  hostile  hands,  the  Commission  has  created 
 appropriate  protections  for  this  data. 
 Today’s  Report  and  Order  is  yet  another  step  the  Commission  is  taking  to  ensure  the  safety  of  America’s  telecommunications  networks.  In  a  world  becoming  increasingly  dependent 


 on  rapid  communication  via  wireless,  cable  and  satellite  we  adopt  these  rules  to  make  certain  that  disruptions  to  these  networks  are  minimal  and  rapidly  corrected. 
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