Pulver: FCC Can Take ‘Simple’ Steps to Spur Post-Disaster Communications
The FCC should require telecom operators to provide voicemail to customers displaced by disaster or simplify the process of porting phone numbers for those who have to abandon wireline phones, Pulver.com said. Pulver was joined by Evslin Consulting in a petition filed Mon. at the FCC. The proposal covers both wireline and wireless operators.
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Pulver.com Gen. Counsel Jonathan Askin told us he sent a copy of the proposal to Katrina Independent Panel Chmn. Nancy Victory. “It’s just a simple, modest proposal. Virtually no one should have a dispute with this as an immediate next step,” Askin said. “It’s simply just make sure people have voicemail, people can port to a number so friends and family can make sure you're okay… We wanted something that could be implemented with current technology immediately… We've got the hurricane season coming up in 90 days.”
Within days of Katrina, wireline and wireless carriers began restoring service, but many customers lacked reliable service for more than a week, Pulver said. A month after the storm, 250,000 customer lines and 300 wireless cellsites still were out of commission.
The Katrina experience shows the wisdom of this tack, the filing said. “Those who had mobile and VoIP phones could be located quickly. They took their phones with them when they evacuated,” the filing said. “Even those who had voice mail and call forwarding as features of their PSTN service could quickly reestablish communication.” The poor in particular need the FCC to act, the filing said: “A large percentage of low income people do not have any mobile phones, VoIP, or even the premium features of the PSTN. Their numbers became useless once their local lines were inoperable or inaccessible.”
Pulver and Evslin said the FCC shouldn’t wait for the independent panel’s June report, or for creation of an FCC Homeland Security Bureau, to act. “If the Commission waits for formation and formal recommendations by either of these groups before taking any further action to address emergency situations, then communications providers will be unprepared in the case of an immediate emergency,” the filing said.