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The period to weigh in on the Federal Communications Commission’s system for reporting the status of communications infrastructure following disasters has begun.
The FCC put out a third further notice, which officially starts the 30-day period to submit proposals to ensure its Disaster Information Reporting System collects data that is useful to responders without placing a burden on its users.
The commission voted to begin a review of DIRS at its August meeting.
DIRS was originally launched by the FCC in 2007 with the purpose of voluntarily collecting “actionable information” on outages and service restoration following natural disasters.
When DIRS is activated, communications providers can log into the system the day after activation and on each subsequent day DIRS remains active to complete worksheets applicable to their infrastructure.
For radio stations that volunteer to participate, a broadcast worksheet template lets the station specify the operational status of its facilities, including whether it is experiencing a power outage.
We have reported on the commission’s consideration of making DIRS mandatory under the previous administration. The National Association of Broadcasters believes a mandate would disrupt the emergency restoration efforts of radio and TV stations.
In 2024, the FCC adopted rules making DIRS reporting mandatory for cable, wireless, wireline and VoIP providers.
Comments are due by Oct. 2, with reply comments due by Nov. 3, and can be filed via ECFS.
