New Bill Would Requires Telecom Companies to Report Outages Impacting 911 and Emergency Alerts

During emergencies, the ability to report dangerous situations and to receive emergency alerts can be critical. [Photo taken during the River Fire in Lake County by Mark McKenna]

Imagine being in a life-threatening emergency, picking up your phone to call 911, and having no service or dial tone. Imagine being fast asleep and never receiving an emergency alert to let you know flames were closing in and about to engulf your home. This is the situation millions of Californians have faced over the last several years as mega-fires have raged in or near their community.

Currently, when telecommunications services go down — affecting 911 service or the ability for emergency officials to send alerts — telecommunication companies are not required to report real-time information about the location of the outage, how many individuals are affected, and what the estimated time of repair is. This means the public is in the dark and are put in harm’s way.

“Californians cannot afford to be without the most up-to-date information during times of disaster,” Senator Mike McGuire said. “That’s why we have introduced SB 670, which would require telecommunications carriers to report outages to the State Office of Emergency Services when outages affect 911 service and emergency notification systems. Failure to report outages affecting 911 service or emergency alerting capabilities can wreak havoc on communities and puts the public’s safety at risk.”

SB 670 is a simple step to mitigate the risks during times of total crisis and phone outages by requiring telecommunications providers to report 911 service outages or outages affecting emergency alert and warning technologies to the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) in real time. This seems like it should already be happening – but it’s not.

This common-sense approach will ensure coordination between state and local emergency officials and telecommunication companies. SB 670 will provide emergency officials with real time data and the crucial information they need to keep our communities safe.

 “The night of October 8^th, 2017 changed the lives of tens of thousands of Californians forever. Whether you were one of the nearly 100,000 evacuated, one of the 6,000 who lost their home, one of the thousands who fled in the middle of the night through the flames or one of the dozens who lost a loved one due to the fire – your loss should not go in vain,” Senator Mike McGuire said. “We have a new normal in California. It’s clear there are significant shortcomings in our emergency alerting system and residents deserve warnings. We moved forward on emergency alert legislation last year, and now it’s time to tackle another massive challenge facing this state: Mandating reporting when 911 goes dark and emergency alerts go silent.”

While the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and FCC have a shared responsibility to oversee all components of 911 services, outage reporting to the PUC is provided hours, and sometimes days, after the outage occurs and not in real time to the State Office of Emergency Services or local emergency managers.

 For example, during the Camp Fire in Paradise, which began around 6:33 am on November 8, 2018, the CPUC received their notification of the outage from the FCC over 5 hours later at 12:01 pm after thousands of homes had been destroyed.

The Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa began at approximately 9:43 pm on October 8, 2017, and the CPUC received their notification from the FCC over 6 hours later at 4:12 am the next morning – thousands of homes were destroyed in that timeframe. By that time, the Tubbs Fire had burned into central Santa Rosa. The California Office of Emergency Services never received formal notification which means local governments never received formal notification either. This is simply unacceptable.

 SB 670 would require providers of telecommunication services to provide notification to CalOES whenever there is a 911 service outage or any outage affecting emergency warning capabilities within 60 minutes of the outage starting. CalOES would then be responsible for notifying the affected local county OES. This would ensure all of the necessary emergency officials are getting the information they need to keep residents safe.

SB 670 passed with unanimous, bipartisan support from both the Senate Governmental Organization Committee (16-0) and the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee (13-0). The bill is currently in Senate Appropriations before going to the full Senate for a vote.