The FCC has released a public notice announcing that after coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), it has expanded its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) data collection effort to include all counties in the State of Florida. As of the evening of September 11, 2017, DIRS is collecting carrier information in all of Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Specifically, communications providers in the impacted areas are asked to “expeditiously submit and update information through DIRS regarding, inter alia, the status of their communications equipment, restoration efforts, and power (i.e., whether they are using commercial power or back-up power).” Communications providers are reminded that for providers that participate in DIRS, the separate Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) obligations are suspended for the duration of the DIRS activation with respect to outages in the counties where DIRS has been activated.
