Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Outage Reporting To Be Required Of Cell Carriers

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 21:01:57 -0500

Outage Reporting To Be Required Of Cell Carriers
Contributed by derek on Fri, Feb 13 2004

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Nothing promotes self-regulation
like regulation. For 10 years, the cellular
and satellite industries have been exempt from an FCC ruling that requires phone
companies to publicly disclose
service outages via a web form.Now, the FCC proposes to include satellite and
mobile carriers in an update to the
ruling. Now,surprisingly...(yeah, sure)...the CTIA CEO Steve Largent is
proposing that industry
SELF-REGULATION would be a much better course of action. Umm, where was that
enthusiasm for
self-regulation over the past 10 years, when it was obvious that cellular
carriers were getting a hall pass? Take my
golden rule of self-regulation, and apply it to any country or business sector:
"Industry self-regulation is far more
effective when it is genuine, is initiated by industry, and is not a knee-jerk
reaction to avoid governmental regulation.
Governmental interference avoidance schemes really take the "self" out of
self-regulation." By the way, neither the
FCC's or the CTIA's proposals would necessarily make outage information
available to the general public -
something that we think should be a requirement.

========================================================================================

CTIA Heralds Voluntary Outage Reporting
BY SUSAN RUSH
FEBRUARY 13, 2004

The addition of government requirements usually causes industry to sit up and
take notice, and a move by the FCC to tighten the reigns on service outage
reporting was no different. CTIA has come out swinging, saying voluntary
reporting
would bring better results than slapping mandatory reporting constraints on
wireless carriers.

The FCC has issued a notice of proposed rule making that would amend
10-year-old requirements for reporting service disruptions. The newly proposed
rule would, for the first time, include wireless and satellite providers --
until now,
only wireline providers were covered under the reporting requirements. The FCC
is
touting an electronic template that would be used by communications providers to

detail outages via the Internet. The FCC contends that the "proposed actions
would facilitate more reliable telecommunications throughout the United States
and promote homeland security."

"Both government and industry are well served by a system of voluntary
reporting," CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent said. "This approach fosters
better cooperation among carriers and is the most effective way to achieve
improvements in network reliability."

In a prepared statement, Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy said that in general,
she is hesitant to impose new regulatory burdens on service providers in
competitive markets, because a fully functioning market generally makes better
decisions than the government. But she went on to say that she recognizes that
there are critical public policy goals, such as protecting public safety, that
can
make regulation imperative.

Largent supports keeping government agencies informed about network
disruptions, but said the wireless industry is already working with the Network
Reliability and Interoperability Council and the Department of Homeland Security

to keep information flowing about outages.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=3&pubdate=02/13/04

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