The Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) has adopted a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) that proposes a framework to share detailed communications outage information with state and federal agencies to assist those agencies in emergency response. The Commission currently provides information on the status of communications services and infrastructure, through its Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) and Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS), to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In light of recent major outages and the need for rapid response, the Commission proposes to provide state agencies, Tribal nations, territories, and the federal government read-only access to its NORS and DIRS filings. In ensuring that the sensitive communications information is protected, the FNPRM proposes to require participating agencies to treat these filings as confidential and certify to the requirements for confidentiality through an application process.
