STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
Re: Improving the Resiliency of Mobile Wireless Communications Networks, PS Docket No. 13-239; 
Reliability and Continuity of Communications Networks, Including Broadband Technologies, PS 
Docket No. 11-60.
In 2013, I dissented from the Commission’s decision to propose an outage reporting scheme 
based on the percentage of cell sites rendered inoperable during a disaster.
1
  As I explained at the time, 
the agency’s approach would confuse and mislead consumers about the reliability and resiliency of their 
wireless service because there is no particular correlation between the percentage of inoperable cell sites 
and the coverage and capacity maintained by wireless providers during a disaster.  A high percentage of 
inoperable cell sites could have little to no impact on consumers, and the opposite could be just as true.  I 
thought we should instead focus on encouraging carriers to continue to invest in strengthening their 
networks.
The record compiled in this rulemaking only confirmed my concerns.  Indeed, we now abandon 
that approach and terminate the proceeding without adopting any rules due to the risk that the agency’s 
approach could confuse and mislead consumers.  This is the right step, and so I support today’s decision. 
The voluntary efforts that companies have agreed to undertake to bolster the resiliency of their wireless 
networks is a far more appropriate path than the one the FCC originally charted.
                                                     
1
Improving the Resiliency of Mobile Wireless Communications Networks, PS Docket No. 13-239, Notice of 
Proposed Rulemaking, 28 FCC Rcd 14373, 14411 (2013) (Dissenting Statement of Commissioner Ajit Pai), 
http://go.usa.gov/x8FW9.