§  4.15   Submarine cable outage reporting.

   Link to an amendment published at  86 FR 22361 , Apr. 28, 2021.

   (a) Definitions. (1) For purposes of this section, “outage” is defined
   as a failure or significant degradation in the performance of a
   licensee's cable service regardless of whether the traffic can be
   re-routed to an alternate path, where:

   (i) An outage of a portion of submarine cable system between submarine
   line terminal equipment (SLTE) at one end of the system and SLTE at
   another end of the system occurs for 30 minutes or more; or

   (ii) An outage of any fiber pair, including due to terminal equipment,
   on a cable segment occurs for four hours or more, regardless of the
   number of fiber pairs that comprise the total capacity of the cable
   segment.

   (2) An “outage” does not require reporting under this section if the
   outage is caused by announced planned maintenance and the licensee
   notified its customers in advance of the planned maintenance and its
   expected duration, except that if the planned maintenance duration
   surpasses the shortest announced duration for the planned maintenance
   and this additional time triggers the requirements in paragraph (a)(1)
   of this section, the outage becomes reportable as of the time the
   maintenance exceeds the shortest announced duration for the planned
   maintenance.

   (b) Outage reporting. (1) For each outage that requires reporting under
   this section, the licensee (or Responsible Licensee as designated by a
   Consortium) shall provide the Commission with a Notification, Interim
   Report, and a Final Outage Report.

   (i) For a submarine cable that is jointly owned and operated by
   multiple licensees, the licensees of that cable may designate a
   Responsible Licensee that files outage reports under this rule on
   behalf of all licensees on the affected cable.

   (ii) Licensees opting to designate a Responsible Licensee must jointly
   notify the Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau's
   Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability Division of this decision
   in writing. Such Notification shall include the name of the submarine
   cable at issue; and contact information for all licensees on the
   submarine cable at issue, including the Responsible Licensee.

   (2) Notification, Interim, and Final Outage Reports shall be submitted
   by a person authorized by the licensee to submit such reports to the
   Commission.

   (i) The person submitting the Final Outage Report to the Commission
   shall also be authorized by the licensee to legally bind the provider
   to the truth, completeness, and accuracy of the information contained
   in the report. Each Final report shall be attested by the person
   submitting the report that he/she has read the report prior to
   submitting it and on oath deposes and states that the information
   contained therein is true, correct, and accurate to the best of his/her
   knowledge and belief and that the licensee on oath deposes and states
   that this information is true, complete, and accurate.

   (ii) The Notification is due within 480 minutes (8 hours) of the time
   of determining that an event is reportable for the first three years
   from the effective date of these rules. After three years from the
   effective date of the rules, Notifications shall be due within 240
   minutes (4 hours). The Notification shall be submitted in good faith.
   Licensees shall provide: The name of the reporting entity; the name of
   the cable and a list of all licensees for that cable; the date and time
   of onset of the outage, if known (for planned events as defined in
   paragraph (a)(2) of this section, this is the estimated start time/date
   of the repair); a brief description of the event, including root cause
   if known; nearest cable landing station; best estimate of approximate
   location of the event, if known (expressed in either nautical miles and
   the direction from the nearest cable landing station or in latitude and
   longitude coordinates); best estimate of the duration of the event, if
   known; whether the event is related to planned maintenance; and a
   contact name, contact email address, and contact telephone number by
   which the Commission's technical staff may contact the reporting
   entity.

   (iii) The Interim Report is due within 24 hours of receiving the Plan
   of Work. The Interim Report shall be submitted in good faith. Licensees
   shall provide: The name of the reporting entity; the name of the cable;
   a brief description of the event, including root cause, if known; the
   date and time of onset of the outage; nearest cable landing station;
   approximate location of the event (expressed in either nautical miles
   and the direction from the nearest cable landing station or in latitude
   and longitude); best estimate of when the cable is scheduled to be
   repaired, including approximate arrival time and date of the repair
   ship, if applicable; a contact name, contact email address, and contact
   telephone number by which the Commission's technical staff may contact
   the reporting entity.

   (iv) The Final Outage Report is due seven (7) days after the repair is
   completed. The Final Outage Report shall be submitted in good faith.
   Licensees shall provide: The name of the reporting entity; the name of
   the cable; the date and time of onset of the outage (for planned events
   as defined in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, this is the start date
   and time of the repair); a brief description of the event, including
   the root cause if known; nearest cable landing station; approximate
   location of the event (expressed either in nautical miles and the
   direction from the nearest cable landing station or in latitude and
   longitude coordinates); duration of the event, as defined in paragraph
   (a) of this section; the restoration method; and a contact name,
   contact email address, and contact telephone number by which the
   Commission's technical staff may contact the reporting entity. If any
   required information is unknown at the time of submission of the Final
   Report but later becomes known, licensees should amend their report to
   reflect this knowledge. The Final Report must also contain an
   attestation as described in paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section.

   (v) The Notification, Interim Report, and Final Outage Reports are to
   be submitted electronically to the Commission. “Submitted
   electronically” refers to submission of the information using
   Commission-approved Web-based outage report templates. If there are
   technical impediments to using the Web-based system during the
   Notification stage, then a written Notification to the Commission by
   email to the Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is
   permitted; such Notification shall contain the information required.
   Electronic filing shall be effectuated in accordance with procedures
   that are specified by the Commission by public notice. Notifications,
   Interim reports, and Final Reports may be withdrawn under legitimate
   circumstances, e.g., when the filing was made under the mistaken
   assumption that an outage was required to be reported.

   (c) Confidentiality. Reports filed under this part will be presumed to
   be confidential. Public access to reports filed under this part may be
   sought only pursuant to the procedures set forth in 47 CFR 0.461.
   Notice of any requests for inspection of outage reports will be
   provided pursuant to 47 CFR 0.461(d)(3).

   (d) Compliance date. This section contains new or modified
   information-collection and recordkeeping requirements. Compliance with
   these information-collection and recordkeeping requirements will not be
   required until six months after the Commission publishes a document in
   the Federal Register announcing approval by the Office of Management
   and Budget and the compliance date. Following such approval, the
   Commission will publish a document in the Federal Register announcing
   that compliance date and removing or revising this paragraph.

   [ 81 FR 52363 , Aug. 8, 2016, as amended at  85 FR 15740 , Mar. 19, 2020]

   Effective Date Note: At  81 FR 52363 , Aug. 8, 2016, § 4.15 was added.
   This section contains information collection and recordkeeping
   requirements and will not become effective until approval has been
   given by the Office of Management and Budget.

   

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