FCC Modernizes Disaster Information Reporting System

The Federal Communications Commission voted to modernize its Disaster Information Reporting System, which collects and reports communications outage information before, during, and after emergencies like hurricanes and floods. The new rules streamline reporting requirements and allow providers to focus more of their resources on service restoration during the immediate wake of a disaster. The Report and Order will enhance DIRS’ capabilities while eliminating unnecessary burdens on communications service providers, allowing them to focus critical resources on service restoration instead of redundant paperwork in those circumstances when every second counts. For manual filers, it permits the submission of a single streamlined form instead of multiple worksheets and it establishes a “one-click” option to indicate no change from the previous day’s report. The new rules also simplify DIRS reporting requirements by eliminating fields that do not offer significant value to public safety stakeholders, ending the requirement to submit a final report after DIRS is deactivated and limiting reporting obligations to facilities-based providers.