The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has released a public notice disseminating lessons learned from past major network outages, and it reminds and encourages communications service providers to review industry best practices to ensure network reliability. Additionally, the public notice recommends that communications service providers and public safety entities review the FCC’s network reliability resources webpage to find more information about industry best practices. As part of its review, PSHSB concluded that several major network outages in the recent past have impacted subscribers trying to call 911 for emergency assistance, and that some of these network outages could have been mitigated or avoided had the carrier followed certain network reliability best practices. Accordingly, the PSHSB encourages communications service providers to implement industry best practices previously recommended by the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC).
