The Jeff Pulver Blog: FCC Seeks Comment on Our Post-Disaster Communications Petition:

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April 10, 2006

FCC Seeks Comment on Our Post-Disaster Communications Petition:

Just the other day I was looking for a few friends at the FCC to help move the petition forward that Tom Evslin and I filed back on March 13th and I am thrilled to report that earlier today the FCC in fact put the petition out for Public Comment.

Comments are due April 27, 2006 and reply comments are due: May 12, 2006. I am actually pleased that the FCC has given this Petition such a quick pleading cycle. To me this means that it might be possible for the FCC to implement the requested rule in pretty quick order. This Petition is NOT intended in anyway to circumvent or otherwise undermine the noble efforts of any other groups tasked with improving post-disaster communications. It is simply an effort to get something positive in place before the next public disaster, so that refugees and other victims who have lost access to their phone number and traditional mode of communication are assured a communications life-line.

If you agree with the simple request in the Petition, I ask that you participate in the Comment cycle and spread the word among others that might care.

The FCC has made the electronic comment filing procedure VERY simple. All you really need to do to weigh in is go to: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/upload_v2.cgi, enter RM-11327 in the first line where it requests the "Proceeding" (this is the Petitions "RM" number), fill in the other minimal contact info requirements, and submit a brief statement in support.

Our Petition is pretty straightforward, and it is not intended to extol the virtues/superiority of IP-based communications. We primarily ask for a mechanism to ensure that individuals (particularly those who might not be able to afford mobile communications devices) are reachable after a public crisis that causes communications networks to go down. We propose a solution that we think could provide immediate relief before the next hurricane season and before more elaborate rules might feasibly be established. We ask simply that the FCC require any provider obligated to provide E911 services to establish an alternate communications service for affected customers via either: (1) activating for each customer a voicemail service that would be accessed by incoming callers dialing the customer's phone number, or (2) providing expedited local number porting to an alternate service provider selected by the customer, including porting to a number outside of the geographic area and/or rate center. Either of these proposals would provide a technically feasible and reasonable means of ensuring that consumers remain connected during emergencies.

Any support you could offer would certainly help move the Petition before the next hurricane or other public disaster. Again, we think the Petition asks for a very simple rule that could/should be implemented BEFORE the next public disaster that leaves many without any way to be reached by friends and loved-ones.

Tags: Post-Disaster Communications, FCC, Tom Evslin, Jeff Pulver

(c) 2006 Jeff Pulver. All Rights Reserved.
(This blog posting is copyright protected by Jeff Pulver. Portions of this blog posting may be quoted or abstracted if attributed.)

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Posted by jeff on April 10, 2006 04:38 PM | Permalink

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Posted by: cause of mesothelioma at October 1, 2006 02:40 PM

Congrats, Jeff (and Tom), for getting your Post-Disaster Communications Petition on the comments calendar!

Posted by: K² at April 11, 2006 02:20 AM

Very interesting petition. Having been in New York in 2001, I have wondered what kind of emergency contact plan I might establish if such an event were to happen again.

I'm not sure what DR might be legally required to maintain the stored content of existing voicemail audio data in such an event, though. What kind of storage requirement (doubled because of replication) may be required to implement this in a way that's workable in a major disaster?

Posted by: TelecomBlogger at April 10, 2006 09:59 PM

April 10, 2006

FCC Seeks Comment on Our Post-Disaster Communications Petition:

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