Sec. 63.100  Notification of service outage.

    (a) As used in this section:
    (1) Outage is defined as a significant degradation in the ability of 
a customer to establish and maintain a channel of communications as a 
result of failure or degradation in the performance of a carrier's 
network.
    (2) Customer is defined as a user purchasing telecommunications 
service from a common carrier.
    (3) Special offices and facilities are defined as major airports, 
major military installations, key government facilities, and nuclear 
power plants. 911 special facilities are addressed separately in 
paragraph (a)(4) of this section.

[[Page 165]]

    (4) An outage which potentially affects a 911 special facility is 
defined as a significant service degradation, switch or transport, where 
rerouting to the same or an alternative answering location was not 
implemented, and involves one or more of the following situations:
    (i) Isolation of one or more Public Service Answering Points (PSAPs) 
for 24 hours or more, if the isolated PSAPs collectively serve less than 
30,000 or more access lines, based on the carrier's database of lines 
served by each PSAP; or
    (ii) Loss of call processing capabilities in the E911 tandem(s), for 
30 minutes or more, regardless of the number of customers affected; or
    (iii) Isolation of one or more PSAP(s), for 30 or more minutes, if 
the isolated PSAPs collectively serve 30,000 or more access lines, based 
on the carrier's database of lines served by each PSAP; or
    (iv) Isolation of an end office switch or host/remote cluster, for 
30 minutes or more, if the switches collectively serve, 30,000 or more 
access lines.
    (5) Major airports are defined as those airports described by the 
Federal Aviation Administration as large or medium hubs. The member 
agencies of the National Communications System (NCS) will determine 
which of their locations are ``major military installations'' and ``key 
government facilities.''
    (6) An outage which ``potentially affects'' a major airport is 
defined as an outage that disrupts 50% or more of the air traffic 
control links or other FAA communications links to any major airport, 
any outage that has caused an Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) 
or major airport to lose it radar, any ARTCC or major airport outage 
that has received any media attention of which the carrier's reporting 
personnel are aware, any outage that causes a loss of both primary and 
backup facilities at any ARTCC or major airport, and any outage to an 
ARTCC or major airport that is deemed important by the FAA as indicated 
by FAA inquiry to the carrier management personnel.
    (7) A mission-affecting outage is defined as an outage that is 
deemed critical to national security/emergency preparedness (NS/EP) 
operations of the affected facility by the National Communications 
System member agency operating the affected facility.
    (b) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or 
competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching 
facilities and provides access service or interstate or international 
telecommunications service, that experiences an outage which potentially 
affects 50,000 or more of its customers on any facilities which it owns, 
operates or leases, must notify the Commission if such outage continues 
for 30 or more minutes. Satellite carriers and cellular carriers are 
exempt from this reporting requirement. Notification must be served on 
the Commission's Duty Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the FCC's 
Communications and Crisis Management Center in Washington, DC. 
Notification may be served on the Commission's Watch Officer on duty at 
the FCC's Columbia Operations Center in Columbia, MD, or at such other 
facility designated by the Commission by regulation or (at the time of 
the emergency) by public announcement only if there is a telephone 
outage or similar emergency in Washington, DC. The notification must be 
by facsimile or other record means delivered within 120 minutes of the 
carrier's first knowledge that the service outage potentially affects 
50,000 or more customers, if the outage continues for 30 or more 
minutes. Notification shall identify a contact person who can provide 
further information, the telephone number at which the contact person 
can be reached, and what information is known at the time about the 
service outage including: the date and estimated time (local time at the 
location of the outage) of commencement of the outage; the geographic 
area affected; the estimated number of customers affected; the types of 
services affected (e.g. interexchange, local, cellular); the duration of 
the outage, i.e. time elapsed from the estimated commencement of the 
outage until restoration of full service; the estimated number of 
blocked calls during the outage; the apparent or known cause of the 
incident, including the name and type of equipment involved and the 
specific part of

[[Page 166]]

the network affected; methods used to restore service; and the steps 
taken to prevent recurrences of the outage. When specifying the types of 
services affected by any reportable outage, carriers must indicate when 
911 service was disrupted and rerouting to alternative answering 
locations was not implemented. The report shall be captioned Initial 
Service Disruption Report. Lack of any of the above information shall 
not delay the filing of this report. Not later than thirty days after 
the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Common Carrier 
Bureau, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all available 
information on the service outage, including any information not 
contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing 
specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating the 
effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best 
practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability 
Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type.
    (c) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or 
competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching 
facilities and provides access service or interstate or international 
telecommunications service, that experiences an outage which potentially 
affects at least 30,000 and less than 50,000 of its customers on any 
facilities which it owns, operates or leases, must notify the Commission 
if such outage continues for 30 or more minutes. Satellite carriers and 
cellular carriers are exempt from this reporting requirement. 
Notification must be served on the Commission's Duty Officer, on duty 24 
hours a day in the FCC's Communications and Crisis Management Center in 
Washington, DC. Notification may be served on the Commission's Watch 
Officer on duty at the FCC's Columbia Operations Center in Columbia, MD, 
or at such other facility designated by the Commission by regulation or 
(at the time of the emergency) by public announcement only if there is a 
telephone outage or similar emergency in Washington, DC. The 
notification must be by facsimile or other record means delivered within 
3 days of the carrier's first knowledge that the service outage 
potentially affects at least 30,000 but less than 50,000 customers, if 
the outage continues for 30 or more minutes. Notification shall identify 
the carrier and a contact person who can provide further information, 
the telephone number at which the contact person can be reached, and 
what information is known at the time about the service outage 
including: the date and estimated time (local time at the location of 
the outage) of commencement of the outage; the geographic area affected; 
the estimated number of customers affected; the types of services 
affected (e.g. interexchange, local, cellular); the duration of the 
outage, i.e. time elapsed from the estimated commencement of the outage 
until restoration of full service; the estimated number of blocked calls 
during the outage; the apparent or known cause of the incident, 
including the name and type of equipment involved and the specific part 
of the network affected; methods used to restore service; and the steps 
taken to prevent recurrences of the outage. When specifying the types of 
services affected by any reportable outage, carriers must indicate when 
911 service was disrupted and rerouting to alternative answering 
locations was not implemented. The report shall be captioned Initial 
Service Disruption Report. Lack of any of the above information shall 
not delay the filing of this report. Not later than thirty days after 
the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Common Carrier 
Bureau, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all available 
information on the service outage, including any information not 
contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing 
specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating the 
effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best 
practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability 
Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type.
    (d) Any local exchange or interexchange carrier or competitive 
access provider that operates transmission or switching facilities and 
provides access service or interstate or international

[[Page 167]]

telecommunications service that experiences a fire-related incident in 
any facilities which it owns, operates or leases that impacts 1000 or 
more service lines must notify the Commission if the incident continues 
for a period of 30 minutes or longer. Satellite carriers and cellular 
carriers are exempt from this reporting requirement. Notification must 
be served on the Commission's Duty Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in 
the FCC's Communications and Crisis Management Center in Washington, DC. 
Notification may be served on the Commission's Watch Officer on duty in 
the FCC's Columbia Operations Center in Columbia, MD, or at such other 
facility designated by the Commission by regulation or (at the time of 
the emergency) by public announcement only if there is a telephone 
outage or similar emergency in Washington, DC. The notification must be 
by facsimile or other recorded means delivered within 3 days of the 
carrier's first knowledge that the incident is fire-related, impacting 
1000 or more lines for thirty or more minutes. Notification shall 
identify the carrier and a contact person who can provide further 
information, the telephone number at which the contact person can be 
reached, and what information is known at the time about the service 
outage including: the date and estimated time (local time at the 
location of the outage) of commencement of the outage; the geographic 
area affected; the estimated number of customers affected; the types of 
services affected (e.g. interexchange, local cellular); the duration of 
the outage, i.e. time elapsed from the estimated commencement of the 
outage until restoration of full service; the estimated number of 
blocked calls during the outage; the apparent or known cause of the 
incident, including the name and type of equipment involved and the 
specific part of the network affected; methods used to restore service; 
and the steps taken to prevent recurrences of the outage. When 
specifying the types of services affected by any reportable outage, 
carriers must indicate when 911 service was disrupted and rerouting to 
alternative answering locations was not implemented. The report shall be 
captioned Initial Service Disruption Report. Lack of any of the above 
information shall not delay the filing of this report. Not later than 
thirty days after the incident, the carrier shall file with the Chief, 
Common Carrier Bureau, a Final Report providing all available 
information on the incident, including any information not contained in 
its Initial Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the 
incident and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in 
the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards 
identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate 
incidents of the reported type.
    (e) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or 
competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching 
facilities and provides access service or interstate or international 
telecommunications service, that experiences an outage on any facilities 
which it owns, operates or leases which potentially affects special 
offices and facilities must notify the Commission if such outage 
continues for 30 or more minutes regardless of the number of customers 
affected. Satellite carriers and cellular carriers are exempt from this 
reporting requirement. Notification must be served on the Commission's 
Duty Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the FCC's Communications and 
Crisis Management Center in Washington, DC. Notification may be served 
on the Commission's Watch Officer on duty at the Columbia Operations 
Center in Columbia, MD, or at such other facility designated by the 
Commission by regulation or (at the time of the emergency) by public 
announcement only if there is a telephone outage or similar emergency in 
Washington, DC. The notification must be by facsimile or other record 
means delivered within 120 minutes of the carrier's first knowledge that 
the service outage potentially affects a special facility, if the outage 
continues for 30 or more minutes. Notification shall identify a contact 
person who can provide further information, the telephone number at 
which the contact person can be reached, and what information is known 
at the time about the service outage including: the date and estimated 
time (local time at

[[Page 168]]

the location of the outage) of commencement of the outage; the 
geographic area affected; the estimated number of customers affected; 
the types of services affected (e.g. 911 emergency services, major 
airports); the duration of the outage, i.e. time elapsed from the 
estimated commencement of the outage until restoration of full service; 
the estimated number of blocked calls during the outage; the apparent or 
known cause of the incident, including the name and type of equipment 
involved and the specific part of the network affected; methods used to 
restore service; and the steps taken to prevent recurrences of the 
outage. When specifying the types of services affected by any reportable 
outage, carriers must indicate when 911 service was disrupted and 
rerouting to alternative answering locations was not implemented. The 
report shall be captioned Initial Service Disruption Report. Lack of any 
of the above information shall not delay the filing of this report. Not 
later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the 
Chief, Common Carrier Bureau, a Final Service Disruption Report 
providing all available information on the service outage, including any 
information not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and 
detailing specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and 
evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of 
any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network 
Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported 
type. Under this rule, carriers are not required to report outages 
affecting nuclear power plants, major military installations and key 
government facilities to the Commission. Report at these facilities will 
be made according to the following procedures:
    (1) When there is a mission-affecting outage, the affected facility 
will report the outage to the National Communications System (NCS) and 
call the service provider in order to determine if the outage is 
expected to last 30 minutes. If the outage is not expected to, and does 
not, last 30 minutes, it will not be reported to the FCC. If it is 
expected to last 30 minutes or does last 30 minutes, the NCS, on the 
advice of the affected special facility, will either:
    (i) Forward a report of the outage to the Commission, supplying the 
information for initial reports affecting special facilities specified 
in this section of the Commission's Rules;
    (ii) Forward a report of the outage to the Commission, designating 
the outage as one affecting ``special facilities,'' but reporting it at 
a level of detail that precludes identification of the particular 
facility involved; or
    (iii) Hold the report at the NCS due to the critical nature of the 
application.
    (2) If there is to be a report to the Commission, a written or oral 
report will be given by the NCS within 120 minutes of an outage to the 
Commission's Duty Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the FCC's 
Communications and Crisis Management Center in Washington, DC. 
Notification may be served on the Commission's Watch Officer on duty at 
the FCC's Columbia Operations Center in Columbia, MD, or at such other 
facility designated by the Commission by regulation or (at the time of 
the emergency) by public announcement only if there is a telephone 
outage or similar emergency in Washington, DC. If the report is oral, it 
is to be followed by a written report the next business day. Those 
carriers whose service failures are in any way responsible for the 
outage must consult with NCS upon its request for information.
    (3) If there is to be a report to the Commission, the service 
provider will provide a written report to the NCS, supplying the 
information for final reports for special facilities required by this 
section of the Commission's rules. The service provider's final report 
to the NCS will be filed within 28 days after the outage, allowing the 
NCS to then file the report with the Commission within 30 days after the 
outage. If the outage is reportable as described in paragraph (e)(2) of 
this section, and the NCS determines that the final report can be 
presented to the Commission without jeopardizing matters of national 
security or emergency preparedness, the NCS will forward the report as 
provided in either paragraphs (e)(1)(i) or (e)(1)(ii) of this section to 
the Commission.

[[Page 169]]

    (f) If an outage is determined to have affected a 911 facility so as 
to be reportable as a special facilities outage, the carrier whose duty 
it is to report the outage to the FCC shall as soon as possible by 
telephone or other electronic means notify any official who has been 
designated by the management of the affected 911 facility as the 
official to be contacted by the carrier in case of a telecommunications 
outage at that facility. The carrier shall convey all available 
information to the designated official that will be useful to the 
management of the affected facility in mitigating the affects of the 
outage on callers to that facility.
    (g) In the case of LEC end offices, carriers will use the number of 
lines terminating at the office for determining whether the criteria for 
reporting an outage has been reached. In the case of IXC or LEC tandem 
facilities, carriers must, if technically possible, use real-time 
blocked calls to determine whether criteria for reporting an outage have 
been reached. Carriers must report IXC and LEC tandem outages where more 
than 150,000 calls are blocked during a period of 30 or more minutes for 
purposes of complying with the required 50,000 potentially affected 
customers threshold and must report such outages where more than 90,000 
calls are blocked during a period of 30 or more minutes for purposes of 
complying with the 30,000 potentially affected customers threshold. 
Carriers may use historical data to estimate blocked calls when required 
real-time blocked call counts are not possible. When using historical 
data, carriers must report incidents where more than 50,000 calls are 
blocked during a period of 30 or more minutes for purposes of complying 
with the required 50,000 potentially affected customers threshold and 
must report incidents where more than 30,000 calls are blocked during a 
period of 30 or more minutes for purposes of complying with the 30,000 
potentially affected customers threshold.
    (h)(1) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or 
competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching 
facilities and provides access services or interstate or international 
telecommunications services, the experiences an outage on any facilities 
that it owns, operates or leases that potentially affects 911 services 
must notify the Commission within the applicable period shown in the 
chart in this paragraph (h)(1) if such outage meets one of the following 
conditions, as defined in paragraph (a)(4) of this section:

                                                                                                
                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
              Condition                    Lines affected             Duration                  
 Period         
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
Loss of E911 Tandem capability......  No limit...............  30 minutes or more....  120 minut
es.             
Isolation of PSAP(s)................  Under 30,000 access      24 hours or more......  120 minut
es.             
                                       lines served.                                            
                
Isolation of PSAP(s)................  50,000 or more access    30 minutes or more....  120 minut
es.             
                                       lines served.                                            
                
Isolation of PSAP(s)................  30,000 to 50,000 access  30 minutes or more....  3 days.  
                
                                       lines served.                                            
                
Isolation of EO switch, host/remotes  50,000 or more access    30 minutes or more....  120 minut
es.             
 from 911.                             lines served.                                            
                
Isolation of EO switch, host/remotes  30,000 to 50,000 access  30 minutes or more....  3 days.  
                
 from 911.                             lines served.                                            
                
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------

    (2) Satellite carriers and cellular carriers are exempted from the 
reporting requirement in this paragraph (h). Notification must be served 
on the Commission's Duty Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the FCC's 
Communicaitons and Crisis Management Center in Washington, DC. 
Notification may be erved on the Commission's Watch Officer on duty at 
the Columbia Operations Center in COlumbia, MD, or at such other 
facility designated by the Commission by regulation or (at the time of 
thee emergency) by public announcement only if there is a telephone 
outage or similar emergency in Washington, DC. The notification must be 
by facsimile or other record means delivered within the notification 
period indicated above from the time of the carrier's first knowledge 
that the service outage ``potentially affects a 911 special facility'' 
as described in paragraph (a)(4) of this section and summarized in the 
chart in paragraph (h)(1) of this section and the service outage has 
continued for the duration indicated in paragraph (a)(4)

[[Page 170]]

of this section and summarized in the chart in paragraph (h)(1) of this 
section. Notification shall identify a contact person who can provide 
further information, the telephone number at which the contact person 
can be reached, and the information known at the time notification is 
made about the service outage including: the date and estimated time 
(local time at the location of the outage) of commencement of the 
outage; the geographic area affected; the estimated number of customers 
affected; the types of services affected; the duration of the outage, 
i.e. time elapsed from the estimated commencement of the outage until 
restoration of full service; the estimated number of blocked calls 
during the outage; the apparent or known cause of the incident, 
including the name and type of equipment involved and the specific part 
of the network affected; methods used to restore service; and the steps 
taken to prevent recurrences of the outage. The report shall be 
captioned Initial Service Disruption Report. Lack of any of the 
information in this paragraph (h)(2) shall not delay the filing of this 
report. Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall 
file with the Chief, Common Carrier Bureau, a Final Service Disruption 
Report providing all available information on the service outage, 
including any information not contained in its Initial Service 
Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the 
outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in 
the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards 
identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate 
outages of the reported type.

[ 59 FR 40266 , Aug. 8, 1994, as amended at  60 FR 57196 , Nov. 14, 1995;  62 FR 39452 , July 23, 1997]

                   Contents of Applications; Examples