Overview[]
The FCC's Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau addresses issues such as public safety communications, alert and warning of U.S. citizens, continuity of government operations and continuity of operations planning, and disaster management coordination and outreach.
The Bureau
- has primary responsibility for assisting providers in ensuring the security and availability of the communications networks.
- developed and maintains the Disaster Information Reporting System, a voluntary, web-based system used by members of the communications sector to track the status of the restoration of communications in the event of a large-scale disaster. The system can provide situational awareness information on the status of restoration efforts to government partners in FCC and DHS.
- developed and maintains the Network Outage Reporting System. Members of the communications sector submit reports through the system that include detailed information about the causes of network outages and the methods used to restore service.
- conducts monthly reviews of the Network Outage Reporting System reports to identify any trends in the causes of the outages, which could potentially be reported to industry working groups on a quarterly basis for them to investigate and make related recommendations.
- investigates reasons why systemic or recurring outages occur and makes informal, nonbinding recommendations to responsible carriers regarding options for improving reliability.
- recommends enforcement actions against carriers that do not fulfill outage reporting requirements.
- provides support to facilitate the overall Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council process and functions as a liaison for the various working groups.
- serves as a clearinghouse for public safety communications information and emergency response issues.
Source[]
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