Contact: Regina Davis, 202-898-9382, rdavis@naruc.org

WASHINGTON (March 18, 2021) — The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners supports the decision by the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a second report and order that provide states access to the agency’s outage reporting data. This move helps NARUC members’ and other state officials’ emergency response efforts through accurate and timely communications outage and infrastructure status information via the FCC’s Network Outage Reporting System and Disaster Information Reporting System.

This Second Report and Order will adopt a framework to provide state and other federal agencies with access to outage information that improves their situational awareness, enhances their ability to respond more quickly to outages affecting their communities — potentially saving lives — while safeguarding the confidentiality of this data.

“Although long overdue, the FCC deserves praise for taking action on this issue,” said NARUC Telecommunications Committee Chair Karen Charles Peterson of Massachusetts. “NARUC and a number of our members have supported this idea since the California Commission petitioned the FCC for access 10 years ago. When a disaster or weather emergency strikes, providing rapid access to company reportage outage data can only improve disaster response and recovery efforts across all levels of government. This order provides that access.”

To read the FCC’s Promoting Public Safety Through Information Sharing document, see bit.ly/FCCPublicSafety.

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About NARUC

NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of State public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.