WASHINGTON-The independent panel reviewing the communications disaster sparked by Hurricane Katrina told the Federal Communications Commission it should encourage various changes to help prevent similar communications problems in the future. However, the panel stopped short of giving specific, detailed requirements that could be turned into rules and therefore enforceable if not followed.
In a report filed with the FCC last week, the Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks made 18 recommendations in four categories, but none of the recommendations outlines specific rules that the FCC should make. Instead, the agency is told to encourage various changes.
“I am particularly pleased to see the Independent Panel’s recommendations to provide a readiness checklist for the communications industry, to inform the public-safety community about technologies to improve the operability and interoperability of their communications, to strengthen the resiliency of Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and other 911 infrastructure, and to take actions to ensure the public gets timely information in times of emergency,” said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
The FCC is also encouraged to work with federal, state and local authorities to enact the recommendations.
The FCC is asking for comment on the report. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he hoped comments would focus on how the agency should implement the recommendations.
“I think that the central question raised by the report is how-and not whether-the communications industry should begin to incorporate more rigorous standards into how it constructs and maintains networks,” Copps said.
The report made a variety of recommendations, but perhaps the most forceful of those suggestions centered on “credentialing.” During Hurricane Katrina, communications companies found it difficult to restore service in areas that had been locked down by law enforcement because their employees did not have the necessary credentials to enter the affected areas. The Katrina panel told the FCC it needs to develop credentialing guidelines to ensure communications workers can quickly repair networks in disaster areas.
At a Senate hearing earlier this year, a representative of the National Communications Service, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, said that the recently-developed National Response Plan does not deal with restoring infrastructure because NCS believes credentialing is a function of state and local government.
In addition to developing national credentialing requirements and process guidelines, the Katrina panel said it “supports the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee’s recommendation that telecom-infrastructure providers and their contracted workers be afforded emergency-responder status, but recommends that it be broadened to include all communications-infrastructure providers.”
The panel also suggests that the communications industry develop a readiness checklist that would include storing equipment so it would be available in case of a disaster. The Katrina panel recommends caching radio-frequency equipment, tower-system components, power-system components and fuel. Additionally, the communications sector, both private and public, should conduct training exercises and develop formal business continuity plans.
The current telecommunications-reform legislation in the Senate provides money for caching equipment for 10 regional Federal Emergency Management Agency offices. The equipment would be “virtual,” meaning that it wouldn’t actually be stored at the location, a move designed to prevent outdated equipment sitting in warehouses.
In order to improve public-safety communications interoperability, the Katrina panel said the FCC should “expeditiously approve any requests by broadcasters to terminate analog service in the 700 MHz band before the end of the digital TV transition in 2009 in order to allow public-safety users immediate access to this spectrum.” The Association of Public-safety Communications Officials endorsed this recommendation.
