The Federal Communications Commission has released a draft report and order to be considered at its May open meeting that, if adopted, the FCC believes will “modernize” its Disaster Information Reporting System.
DIRS is a web-based system that communications providers, including broadcast, wireless, wireline, cable and broadband service providers use to report their communications infrastructure status and collect situational awareness information.
In a notice released April 29, the commission said the proposed order will enhance DIRS’ capabilities “while eliminating unnecessary burdens on communications service providers, allowing them to focus more of their resources on service restoration instead of redundant paperwork in those circumstances when every second counts.”
In addition to saving time and streamlining DIRS report preparation, the FCC said the National Association of Broadcasters believes that the redesign of the system “would facilitate broadcasters voluntary participation in DIRS, especially smaller stations.”
Proposed changes include the elimination of fields that “do not offer significant value to public safety stakeholders.”
(Read the commission’s DIRS “modernization” report and order.)
The proposed DIRS rules would also allow manual filers to submit a single form instead of multiple worksheets, according to the release. It also establishes a “one-click” option for manual filers to indicate when there is no change from the previous day’s reports.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr also said in the release the rules to be considered would augment providers’ ability to submit geospatial data about outages.
Additional changes
The report and order under consideration in May offers other DIRS modifications:
- Eliminates the requirement for DIRS filers to submit a final report after DIRS is deactivated.
- Limits DIRS reporting obligations to facilities-based providers, which the commission believes will eliminate “unnecessary reporting burdens” for resellers and mobile virtual network operators that do not operate communications infrastructure.
- Establishes mandatory DIRS reporting for public safety voice and broadband network operators on the status of public safety network infrastructure and public safety customer impact.
The FCC also directed the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to improve the ability of filers to voluntarily submit “geographic” information about service areas and the locations of facilities that are out of service.
The commission had asked in its proposed rulemaking for comments on ways to collect “more granular information” from wireless providers about the location of cell sites that are out of service.
It said it plans to move forward voluntarily collecting such information, but “not limit it to only cell site locations and allow it for any kind of geographic information that filers believe would be useful to provide to emergency managers.”
More participation
The DIRS system, first established in 2007, is voluntary for broadcasters and can only be activated by the commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. The information collected gives local emergency managers “situational awareness they need to respond to these disasters,” according to the draft being circulated.
As Radio World has reported, in 2024, the commission made DIRS reporting mandatory for cable communications, wireless, wireline and interconnected VoIP providers, but not radio nor TV broadcasters.
The FCC previously has said only 20 to 35% of broadcast stations typically submit reports, but the draft of the new rulemaking being considered made no mention of DIRS reporting being made mandatory for broadcasters.
NAB has told the FCC in the past that it believes mandatory filings for broadcasters would disrupt the emergency restoration efforts of radio and TV stations.
The FCC opened a window last fall to collect comments on ways to improve DIRS. The new measures likely to be adopted “simplify DIRS reporting for all service providers especially those with limited resources,” the commission said.
The FCC’s open meeting is scheduled for May 20.
