81 FR 52354 - Improving Outage Reporting for Submarine Cables and Enhanced Submarine Outage Data
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 152 (August 8, 2016)
Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 152 (August 8, 2016)
| Page Range | 52354-52363 | |
| FR Document | 2016-18610 |
[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 152 (Monday, August 8, 2016)] [Rules and Regulations] [Pages 52354-52363] From the Federal Register Online [www.thefederalregister.org] [FR Doc No: 2016-18610] ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Parts 1 and 4 [GN Docket No. 15-206; FCC 16-81] Improving Outage Reporting for Submarine Cables and Enhanced Submarine Outage Data AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission or FCC) adopts final rules of a Report and Order requiring submarine cable licensees to report service outages through the network outage reporting systems (NORS). In doing so, the FCC seeks to improve overall submarine cable reliability and resiliency by enhancing the FCC's visibility into the operational status of submarine cables, which will permit the FCC to track and analyze outage trends. The Report and Order requires all submarine cable licensees to report service outages to the FCC, defined as a failure or significant degradation in the performance of a licensee's cable service regardless of whether the traffic can be re-routed to an alternate path. Licensees must report outages, including those caused by planned maintenance, of a portion of a submarine cable system for more than 30 minutes, or the failure or significant degradation of any fiber pair lasing for four hours or more. Lastly, the Report and Order will improve submarine cable deployment conditions and resiliency through better coordination of inter-agency permit review. DATES: This rule contains information collection requirements that has not been approved by the Office of Management and Budget. The Federal Communications Commission will publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective date for this rule. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Peter Shroyer, Attorney Advisor, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, (202) 418-1575 or [email protected]. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Report and Order in GN Docket No. 15-206, adopted on June 24, 2016, and released on July 12, 2016. The full text of this document is available for public inspection during regular business hours in the FCC Reference Center, Room CY-A257, 445 12th Street SW., Washington, DC 20554, or online at http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2016/db0712/FCC-16-81A1.pdf. In this Report and Order, the FCC adopts final rules requiring submarine cable licensees to report service outages through the network outage reporting systems (NORS). In doing so, the FCC seeks to improve overall submarine cable reliability and resiliency by enhancing the FCC's visibility into the operational status of submarine cables, which will permit the FCC to track and analyze outage trends. The Report and Order requires all submarine cable licensees to report service outages to the FCC, defined as a failure or significant degradation in the performance of a licensee's cable service regardless of whether the traffic can be re- routed to an alternate path. Licensees must report outages, including those caused by planned maintenance, of a portion of a submarine cable system for more than 30 minutes, or the failure or [[Page 52355]] significant degradation of any fiber pair lasing for four hours or more. Lastly, the Report and Order will improve submarine cable deployment conditions and resiliency through better coordination of inter-agency permit review. Synopsis 1. Report and Order 1. This Report and Order serves the public interest and promotes the national and economic security of the nation by requiring submarine cable licensees to report to the Federal Communications Commission (``Commission'' or ``FCC'') when submarine (or ``undersea'') cable outages occur and communications over those facilities are disrupted. By moving--as we do today--from an ad hoc outage reporting system to one that will ensure the Commission has a dependable, holistic view of the operating status of submarine cables, we will be in a better position to examine the resiliency posture of submarine cable infrastructure and to ensure the reliability of the critical national security and economic communications that transit it. In this Report and Order, we:Require submarine cable licensees to report to the Commission service outages, defined as ``a failure or significant degradation in the performance of a licensee's cable service regardless of whether the traffic can be re-routed to an alternate path.'' Specify that an outage requires reporting when there is: [cir] An outage, including those caused by planned maintenance, of a portion of a submarine cable system between submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) at one end of the system and SLTE at another end of the system for more than 30 minutes; or [cir] The failure or significant degradation of any fiber pair, including losses due to terminal equipment issues, on a cable segment for four hours or more, regardless of the number of fiber pairs that comprise the total capacity of the cable segment. Define the reporting requirements to include a Notification within eight hours (to become four hours after three years) of the time of determining that a reportable outage has occurred; an Interim Report within 24 hours of receiving a Plan of Work (relating to repairs); and a Final Report within seven days of completing repair. Clarify the content required in the reports to allow for the fact that not all requested information may be known when the reports are due. Treat the information provided through this reporting system as confidential, consistent with section 4.2 of our rules for existing outage reporting. Provide that these requirements will become effective six months after OMB approval of these rules to provide ample time for implementation. 2. Background. Submarine cables provide the conduit for the vast majority of voice, data and Internet connectivity between the mainland United States and consumers in Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as the connectivity between the United States and the rest of the world. Accordingly, the operation and maintenance of the approximately 60 undersea cables licensed in the United States are essential to the nation's economic stability, national security and other vital public interests. Presently, submarine cable licensees are not required to report on their cables' operational status. Rather, licensees provide such operational information to the Commission on a voluntary, ad hoc basis through the Commission's Undersea Cable Information System (UCIS). This ad hoc approach contrasts significantly with the Commission's part 4 outage reporting requirements for other communication services which require targeted information on the cause and effects of communications outages, establishes specific reporting triggers and thresholds, and provides deadlines for those reports to be made. Furthermore, the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) established for part 4 data reporting has not previously provided the Commission with the necessary information to analyze undersea cable disruptions, as the system was designed for different types of infrastructure outage reporting, not submarine cable reporting, and lacks the data fields necessary to report on submarine cable infrastructure. 3. We find that a mandatory outage reporting regime is necessary to provide the Commission with greater visibility into the availability and health of these networks to allow it to better track and analyze submarine cable resiliency, and suggest or take appropriate actions when the data so indicate, i.e., before there is a significant problem. The need for such reporting is only heightened when, as is the case with submarine cable infrastructure, the facilities are few, are vital to U.S. economic activity and national security, have unique vulnerabilities in their environment, and are exceptionally challenging to repair. Further, it is clear that UCIS has failed to become the comprehensive source of information about undersea cable outages it was intended to be: Few reports are filed; those that are filed are inconsistent from entity to entity; and the design of UCIS lacks the analytical capabilities necessary for the Commission to perform meaningful analysis. 4. We recognize that redundancies (i.e., traffic re-route engineering) are already in place for many cables that prevent or at least mitigate service outages, but this argument misses the broader goal of the proposed mandatory reporting regime, which is that both the cables and the services provided over them must be protected. For the Commission to ensure the stability of submarine cable infrastructure, it must have greater visibility than what is currently provided through UCIS into the connectivity and capacity of all undersea cables landing in the United States. And, even though we recognize that the low number of reports filed in UCIS might be due to a low number of reportable outages, the record suggests otherwise. As mere examples, the outages discussed above are important evidence of how it is not only the number of outages, but rather, also the potential impact of the outages, as well as the deficit in the Commission's situational awareness of a major outage, that convince us that reporting needs to be mandatory and of the scope described herein. Accordingly, we adopt the mandatory reporting regime for undersea cable operators described below. This regime will replace UCIS in its entirety and we direct the Bureau to retire UCIS upon the effective date of these rules. 5. Reporting Obligations. To effectively achieve undersea cable infrastructure assurance, consistent with part 4 traditionally, we will define reportable outages without regard to a licensee's or provider's re-routing of the traffic carried over a given cable, or some other measure requiring a complete loss of service. Accordingly, we define ``outage'' as ``a failure or significant degradation in the performance of a licensee's cable service regardless of whether the traffic can be re-routed to an alternate path.'' 6. Though there are redundant configurations in some, but not all submarine cable infrastructure, we adopt our proposal to require a reporting obligation regardless of whether traffic is re-routed, and we use the broader term ``path'' to avoid analysis of whether the traffic was specifically re-routed to another cable. For the purpose of promoting and advancing the national security and public safety interests served by our [[Page 52356]] U.S.-based landings and connections as a whole, we need to assess outages across the total undersea cable environment serving the United States. For example, in some situations the redundant paths could be over-utilized due to an emerging problem, such as an expansive coastline area disruption affecting several independent submarine cables. Using such an approach would help us understand operability of submarine cables holistically to better safeguard reliability of this important part of the nation's communications system. 7. We also modify our proposed definition to limit reportable events to failures or ``significant'' degradation in the performance of a communications provider's cable. As explained in the section below on outage reporting triggers, we are adjusting our metrics to require the reporting of only significantly degraded service and not all incidents of degraded service, which will better align our outage reporting rules for submarine cables with our current part 4 outage reporting requirements. Further, our adjustment to include ``significant'' degradation is consistent with our long established outage reporting requirement that an outage includes events where even ``some traffic might be getting through during a period of massive disruption'' (See, e.g., Amendment of Part 63 of the Commission's Rules to Provide for Notification by Common Carriers of Service Disruptions, CC Docket No. 91 273, Report and Order, 7 FCC Rcd 2010, 2010, para. 11 (1992). 8. Reportable Outage Metrics. We adopt a modified outage reporting metric to capture significant degradations and to simplify reporting in general. Under the originally proposed metric, events causing performance failures would not be reportable until all connectivity was lost. We therefore modify both proposed metrics, addressing the connectivity and capacity metrics to account for performance failures and events resulting from planned maintenance. 9. Connectivity is an important metric but we are persuaded to modify it to exclude reporting that could be burdensome and of limited value. Accordingly, we adopt a modified version of the connectivity metric proposed by the Submarine Cable Coalition and require reporting when there is an outage, including those caused by planned maintenance, of a portion of a submarine cable system between SLTE at one end of the system and SLTE at another end of the system for more than 30 minutes. We are persuaded to make this modification in order to limit the burdens caused by reporting routine terminal equipment issues that can be corrected rapidly. While the Submarine Cable Coalition does not specifically define the term ``SLTE'' in its comments, it is commonly understood to be part of the ``dry plant'' comprised of ``signal processing equipment and optical multiplexing equipment that allows transmission over the submarine cable.'' Thus, we focus on issues resulting in outages that fall between the SLTE due to problems with the ``wet plant,'' including the submarine cable, repeaters, optical equalizer, and branching unit. We believe 30 minutes, not three hours, is an appropriate timeframe to trigger a reporting obligation for such failures because damage or repair to facilities between the SLTE likely indicates a long-term problem that will not be cleared quickly, so there is no benefit to further delaying reporting. 10. Further, to simplify our original capacity metric (i.e., reporting required when fifty percent or more of the capacity of the submarine cable, in either the transmit or receive mode, is lost for at least 30 minutes), we adopt a modification of our original proposal. In doing so, we also seek to create a reporting backstop that is broader than the connectivity metric described above and designed to capture events that affect even a single fiber pair, yet provide a longer window before the event becomes reportable. We adopt a metric requiring a report for the failure or significant degradation of any fiber pair, including losses due to terminal equipment issues, on a cable segment for four hours or more, regardless of the number of fiber pairs that comprise the total capacity of the cable segment. Because issues may arise at the landing station that will affect submarine cable system operation, we include outages that are due to SLTE failures. 11. Covered Entities. We adopt a requirement that all licensees, regardless of when the license was obtained, must comply with license conditions, including the outage reporting rules we now adopt. We agree with Docomo that there is no public policy reason to exempt submarine cable licensees from the obligation to report. All licensees are integral components in the provision of submarine cable infrastructure, and the Commission could not meet its goal of acquiring a comprehensive viewpoint of the operational status of all submarine cables if certain licensees were exempted. We believe with the flexibilities discussed below, pre-2002 licensees would be unlikely to have increased burden compared to post-2002 licensees. Most pre-2002 cables operate as a consortium. Consortium cables generally use construction and maintenance agreements (C&MA), which can be amended to incorporate new regulatory requirements as necessary. To the extent that extra flexibility or time is required to revise the C&MAs to ensure compliance with the outage reporting requirements adopted herein, we address that below. 12. In light of concerns raised regarding the operations of consortiums or that of a cable with multiple licensees, we choose to permit, but not require, a Responsible Licensee designation. We have made this decision to add flexibility to the Responsible Licensee system due to the concerns expressed about how our rules could be complicated given the nature of consortiums, including their size, domestic/foreign composition, potential language barriers, and time zone challenges, as well as how compliance review will add to costs for reporting. Consortium members are in the best position to determine which member is best placed to comply and meet the reporting obligation for the consortium, such as a U.S. landing operator or a Network Operations Center (NOC) operator. We agree with Verizon that under this approach, licensees and non-licensees, including those operating with pre-2002 licensees, are free to negotiate and allocate the underlying risk and financial responsibility. Nonetheless, should a Responsible Licensee be designated, it must register with and keep the Commission updated as to its Responsible Licensee status pursuant to our rules. We will hold the Responsible Licensee responsible for reporting compliance once designated and registered with the Commission. 13. If no Responsible Licensee is designated with the Commission or in effect at the time of an outage, each party experiencing a reportable outage can be held responsible for reporting and liable should the Commission need to pursue enforcement action. This is a departure from our proposal to hold all consortium members jointly and severally liable when a cable experiences an outage, in order to provide additional flexibility to covered providers. In this way we limit enforcement liability to those licensees experiencing an outage. 14. Content of Notification. We require licensees to provide a preliminary notification in NORS (all reports described herein are to be filed in NORS in a system designed specifically for submarine cable outage reporting) once it has been determined that an undersea cable outage has [[Page 52357]] occurred. We find that having awareness of an outage, even without certain information about that outage, helps achieve our goal of improving situational awareness as to the operational status of undersea cable networks. Reporting via widely available electronic means is affordably feasible and quite often a normal part of operations. As proposed in the Notice, notifications must contain the name of the reporting entity; the name of the cable and a list of all licensees for that cable; whether the event is planned or unplanned; and contact information for the Commission. We recognize, however, that access to information about the root cause, approximate location, and estimated duration of an outage will often be unavailable in the period immediately following an operator's determination that there has been an undersea cable outage. Accordingly, we modify our original proposal from the Notice and require such information only if known at the time of the notification. 15. We acknowledge that the root cause of an outage many times cannot be determined until after repair work is done, and only seldom is it known at the time of an outage. Accordingly, in their notifications licensees must provide a brief description of the event and need only include information on the root cause if known at the time. If the root cause is unknown, licensees should specify as such and provide further information where available in Interim or Final Reports. 16. With respect to the location of an outage, licensees must provide the name of the nearest cable landing station if known, as well as its best estimate of the location of the event, expressed in either, nautical miles and the direction from the nearest cable landing station, or in approximate latitude and longitude coordinates. We have added ``the direction from'' the nearest cable landing station (e.g., 15 nautical miles west of [the cable landing station]'' to improve clarity in reporting, if known. We acknowledge that undersea cables traverse vast distances, and it can be a complicated and time-consuming task to determine the location of an undersea cable outage. Though we only proposed that licensees report the ``approximate location'' of an outage, we clarify that we do not seek to divert time and attention away from service restoration efforts by requiring licensees to provide this information. As with root cause information, licensees must provide this information if known at the time of the notification, and if unknown, licensees should provide further detail where possible in subsequent reports. 17. With respect to the duration of the event, licensees must provide their best estimate in the notification, but supplement with further information as it becomes available in their Interim or Final Reports. As with root cause and location information, our aim in including this information in the notification is to provide preliminary situational awareness in the immediate wake of an outage, which can be supplemented or corrected through later reports. 18. Timeframe for Notification. Again, we recognize that the determination of root cause, approximate location, and duration of an outage typically takes much longer than 120 minutes after the determination that an outage has occurred. Moreover, we agree with commenters that licensees' primary objective in the wake of an outage should be to restore service, and that reporting obligations should be subordinate to that objective. As discussed above, we modify our original notification proposal to require licensees to provide root cause information, approximate location, and estimated duration of an outage only when available. The notification process is intended to be preliminary in nature and simply provide notice of, not necessarily detail about, an undersea cable outage, for purposes of situational awareness. 19. We also emphasize that the timeframe for reporting starts upon ``the time of determining that an event is reportable'' and not necessarily the moment that an event becomes reportable. Several commenters, in arguing that the Commission's proposed notification timeframe is infeasible, point to difficulties in receiving the initial notification. For example, AT&T asserts that ``most notifications of the occurrence of outages on consortium cables that AT&T receives from foreign consortium parties are not provided within two hours of the cable failure.'' Even if the foregoing complications arose preventing a licensee from knowing of an outage when it became reportable, the licensee would only be ``on the clock'' to report the event when it determines (i.e., has knowledge that) the event is reportable. This distinction should alleviate many of the concerns that licensees will need to implement new network monitoring processes. 20. We continue to believe that licensees can report within the proposed two-hour timeframe from determining that an event is reportable, particularly as they need not provide substantive detail on the root cause, location, or duration of the outage if unavailable at that time; we believe that quick notification is an essential element in achieving the Commission's goal of developing comprehensive situational awareness of submarine cable infrastructure. We additionally note our view that many of the submarine cable operators have the technical capabilities to near-instantly detect outages and are standard within the industry. 21. That said, given the support on the record for a longer notification timeframe and AT&T's statements that it will need time to implement these requirements with its consortium partners, we will initially, for a three year period from the effective date of these rules, require licensees to notify the Commission of an outage within eight hours of determining that an event is reportable. Three years after the effective date of these rules, licensees will be responsible for filing notifications within four hours of determining that an event is reportable. After three years, the Commission will open a proceeding to revisit. We find that allowing four hours from the time of determining an event is reportable, not when the event necessarily becomes reportable, is feasible, particularly as we have allowed for licensees to include approximations and best estimates in their filings. This phased-in approach will give licensees ample time to hone their reporting structure while still achieving the aforementioned goal of prompt situational awareness. A further elongated timeframe does not as adequately serve the Commission's goal of acquiring rapid situational awareness of submarine cable infrastructure. 22. Content of Interim Report. We adopt modified Interim Report content requirements to address concerns that a root cause may not always be known in this adjusted timeframe. We require licensees to report on all of the elements described above in the original proposal, observing that many of these elements (name of the reporting licensee; the name of the cable and a list of all licensees for that cable; the date and time of onset of the outage; and a contact name, contact email address, and contact telephone number by which the Commission's technical staff may contact the reporting entity) will be auto-filled from the Notification and thus will likely require no additional work on the part of the reporting entity barring administrative changes. These fields remain important for basic factual references and we see no reason to exclude them from the Interim Report. We will also continue to require a brief description of the event, including root cause; nearest cable landing station; approximate location of the event [[Page 52358]] (either, in nautical miles and the direction from the nearest cable landing station or in latitude and longitude); and the best estimate of the duration of the event. These are the fields that will supply the Commission with necessary situational awareness about the status of the outage, particularly when the information is updated from that which we received in the Notification. We depart slightly from our original proposal, however, and will now only require the root cause description if known at the time. We are persuaded by commenters' arguments that the root cause may need extended analysis and sometimes may not be known until the repair is completed. We have again added ``the direction from'' the nearest cable landing station (e.g., ``15 nautical miles west of [the cable landing station]'' to improve clarity in reporting, if known. We emphasize that an approximate location of the event and best estimate of the duration of the event are all that is required; licensees will not be penalized for the later-determined accuracy of these interim responses if they are submitted in good faith. We also adopt our proposal that Interim Reports are not required for planned outages so long as the planned nature of the event was appropriately signaled in the Notification. 23. Timeframe for Interim Report. We adopt a modified reporting timeframe for the Interim Report. Accordingly, we will require licensees to file an Interim Report, if required, within 24 hours of receipt of the Plan of Work, which we believe strikes the appropriate balance between allowing licensees sufficient time for necessary coordination to amply inform the Commission with useful and timely information. 24. Final Report. In the Notice, we proposed to require licensees to file a Final Report seven days after the repair is completed. We proposed that the following elements be required in a Final Report: The name of the reporting entity; the name of the cable; whether the outage was planned or unplanned; the date and time of onset of the outage (for planned events, this is the start date and time of the repair); a brief description of the event; nearest cable landing station; approximate location of the event (either in nautical miles from the nearest cable landing station or in latitude and longitude); duration of the event; the restoration method; a contact name, contact email address, and contact telephone number by which the Commission's technical staff may contact the reporting entity. 25. The two components of the Final Report that differ from the Notification and the Interim Report are (1) the duration of the event and (2) the restoration method. The Notice proposed that this type of Final Report, with the inclusion of these two additional elements, would enable the Commission to work directly with communication providers using a data-driven method on collaborative reliability improvement initiatives that will produce measurable results for undersea cables. 26. Contents of Final Report. As with both the Notification and Interim Reports, we understand the commenters' concerns that particular information may not be known at the time the repairs have been completed given the complexities of undersea cable repairs. We also take into account that submarine cable licensees often work together in consortiums, and that although one member may know a certain element of the Final Report, the information may not make its way to other consortium members who are also experiencing an outage or disruption on the same cable. For these reasons, we adopt our proposals for the content reporting obligations for the Final Report, but with a modification for the ``brief description of the event.'' Here, in a Final Report, a licensee will need to provide the root cause in its brief description of the event only if known at the time of filing. Both Verizon and AT&T noted that in some cases, completion of the root cause analysis may not be known in the proposed timeframe, and in some instances, never be determined. Nonetheless, the Commission expects providers to conduct reasonable due diligence to ascertain the root cause of an event. We have also again added ``the direction from'' the nearest cable landing station (e.g., ``15 nautical miles west of [the cable landing station]'') to improve clarity in reporting, if known. 27. After the submission of the Final Report, particular details of an event may become known or change as research is done and repairs are completed. In order for the Commission to obtain the most accurate information, previous Final Reports (and only Final Reports) must be supplemented after the Final Report if that information materially alters the previously reported material. Amendments to Final Reports should be made in good faith. 28. The parallels of the Final Report content to our existing part 4 rules, in conjunction with the NORS platform, create an efficient, streamlined and user-friendly system when implementing these new procedures. Furthermore, we believe that the contents of the Final Report would be easily compiled, as NORS interface automatically populates the fields where information required duplicates that of the Notification and Interim Report, so the reporting licensee would not have to reenter data unless it is to amend or edit a previously- supplied response. We note that the Commission recently adopted a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking which sought comment on applying a two-step reporting process to all covered services, which, if adopted, would apply to submarine cable outage reporting. Interested parties may file comments on this issue in the part 4 proceeding. 29. Timeframe for Final Report. We adopt our proposal to require licensees to file a Final Report seven calendar days after the repair is completed. There is substantial record support for requiring submission of this critical information within a week following the repair completion. The Commission has a responsibility to ensure the reliability and security of the nation's communications infrastructure, and obtaining timely information on communications service disruptions is essential to that goal. 30. We are not persuaded by the proposal to extend the deadline to a minimum of 45 days. We find that a majority of the information that must be included in a Final Report is readily available following the repair of the submarine cable. As mentioned above, the Commission is aware of the unique nature of submarine cable repairs, which is why the Final Report shall be amended, when necessary. Therefore, we decline to adopt Latam's proposal of a 45-day minimum for a Final Report deadline. The seven day requirement we adopt today provides the Commission critical network outage information within a reasonable time. 31. Good Faith Requirements in Section 4.11. We adopt substantially the same wording codified in Section 4.11 of our rules for the submarine cable outage reporting system. We are cognizant of the complexities and uncertainties that may arise with outages resulting from a damaged cable. However, the good faith and attestation requirements will not be violated if the authorized personnel submitting a report does in fact submit all of the information known to them, in good faith, at the time of reporting. Also, as made clear above, licensees have the duty to amend their Final Reports, in good faith, if the licensee later learns that the reported information is inaccurate. Accordingly, consistent with support from the record, we will require a good faith requirement and an attestation consistent with Section 4.11. [[Page 52359]] 32. Confidentiality of Submarine Outage Reports and Data. We adopt our proposal that undersea cable reporting information is to be treated as presumptively confidential consistent with Section 4.2 of the Commission's rules governing outage reporting. Maintaining the confidentiality of submarine cable outage data is critical to safeguarding weaknesses or damage to our national communications infrastructure that could potentially facilitate enemies targeting our nation's key resources. The Communications Act of 1934 charges the Commission with promoting ``the safety of life and property through the use of wire and radio communication.'' (47 U.S.C. 151). Releasing detailed and sensitive information regarding submarine cable outages and disruptions would contradict this core mission of the Commission. We will, however, share information with DHS as is customary with our part 4 outage reports. This model is consistent with the Commission's past precedent for outage reporting and we do not see a need to depart here from that practice solely for submarine cable outage reporting. 33. We also note that the Commission recently adopted a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking addressing many of these same issues and has not yet decided if or how it will change its outage report information sharing practices more broadly. Interested parties may file comments on this issue in the part 4 proceeding. We believe that a broader proceeding is a better context for making decisions on how outage information should be shared more generally, and allow for submarine cable outage information sharing to be considered in that context. We also observe that initiating this program in a manner that is consistent with the confidentiality in other part 4 reporting would allow for reevaluation at a later date of a different approach. 34. Implementation. These rules will become effective six (6) months after OMB approval of this information collection, representing a balance between industry's needs to adequately prepare for these reporting requirements and the Commission's need to obtain timely situational awareness of the operational status of the nation's submarine cable infrastructure. As the incident in the CNMI has shown, the Commission cannot continue to wait for licensees to take advantage of the current voluntary approach. Yet, we find that a six month extension is warranted to allow those providers who did not previously report such outages to develop processes for doing so. We also recognize that consortium members may need additional time to determine reporting structures. We do not believe extending the rule implementation date beyond six months from OMB approval is warranted because of the significant adjustments to the proposed rules to add in flexibility and clarify responsibilities. 35. Interagency Coordination. In the Notice, we directed the International Bureau, in coordination with the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, to ``reach out to relevant government agencies, under its existing delegated authority,'' to ``develop and improve interagency coordination processes and best practices vis- [agrave]-vis submarine cable deployment activities and related permits and authorizations to increase transparency and information sharing among the government agencies, cable licensees, and other stakeholders.'' We note that the Bureaus have met with several of the stakeholders since the Submarine Cable Outage Notice was adopted and that work on this matter is ongoing. We agree with commenters' that interagency coordination is very important to protect submarine cable infrastructure. To this end, the International Bureau, in coordination with the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, will continue to lead interagency coordination efforts to help increase transparency and information sharing among the government agencies, cable licensees, and other stakeholders and promote improved interagency coordination processes to mitigate threats to undersea cables and facilitate new projects to improve geographic diversity. 36. Potential Costs of Compliance. The record makes clear that there are additional costs, beyond the Notice's initial $8,000 cost estimate (premised upon the costs of filing the three versions of outage reports for 50 events) that should be factored into our total estimate of the costs of the regulations we enact today. Our finding that this cost figure should be adjusted, however, is not a result of the Notice failing to account for costs; instead the Notice affirmatively sought comment on items such as implementation costs, the extent to which the information required is not available in the normal course of business, and the costs of inter-licensee negotiations that are unique to consortium submarine cables. 37. As an initial matter, we note that many of the proposals that commenters claimed would inflate the costs have been revised or clarified in an effort to reduce burdens in response to the record. For example, we limited the reporting on issues related to terminal- equipment to those events lasting four hours, and thus presumably eliminated many of the ``mundane'' events from the reporting requirement, thereby reducing compliance costs. We extended the proposed reporting timeframes for the Notification and the Interim Report while clarifying that reports are due within a set period from when the licensee determines that the event is reportable, not from when the event itself becomes reportable. In this way, we alleviate the concerns of those that claim they would have to update their entire network monitoring system in order to comply. We also allowed for best estimate reporting on many of the fields that commenters indicated would be costly to identify with precision on a timely basis. We have taken the Responsible Licensee system, which was explicitly designed to mitigate burdens by having only one licensee per submarine cable report on behalf of other licensees on that cable, and allowed licensees not to use that system if they find it burdensome. 38. Thus, while we acknowledge that $8,000 figure may not represent the total cost of compliance and that upward adjustments should be made, the record on industry costs does not speak with specificity or even generalities to the requirements we have enacted given our record- based modifications. Accordingly, we instead recognize the OMB-approved 2014 UCIS collection of $305,000. We note that the costs associated with UCIS also included costs beyond those which we now require. UCIS asked licensees to provide four categories of information for each submarine cable with a cable landing in the United States: (1) A terrestrial route map; (2) a location spreadsheet; (3) a general description of restoration plans in the event of an incident; and (4) system restoration messages. As we described in the Notice, ``the first three categories are static insofar as the route, the geographic coordinates (i.e., location), and restoration plans change infrequently. Information provided in the fourth category is dynamic, insofar as such messages should be updated after an incident and during the repair process.'' It is the fourth category of reporting system restoration messages that is directly analogous to the outage reporting requirements we enact. 39. The costs of UCIS associated with the three ``static'' categories represented $183,000 of the $305,000 total, with the system restoration messages accounting for $122,000 in reporting costs annually for the industry. This $122,000 annual cost estimate was derived from use of two conservative assumptions. First, that a single set of outage reports would involve as many as 40 hours, rather than [[Page 52360]] only the two hours that we estimate above. Second, that all 61 cables licensed in 2014 would experience an outage every year. (We used the number of licensed cables, rather than the number of cable licensees, because it is common for multiple licensees to operate on a single cable, and past experience indicates that consortia (or multiple licensees operating on a single cable) generally designate only one licensee to prepare and file the report.) We then used an estimated labor rate of $50 rather than $80 per hour, to be consistent with the 2014 OMB Supporting Statement's UCIS cost estimate. Thus, 40 x 61 x $50 = $122,000. If we increased this figure by 25 percent (to account for moving from 40 to 50 hours reporting per licensee per year), we would arrive at a total of approximately $152,500 for an analogous reporting requirement. We find this to be a credible annual burden estimate based on the record and analogous UCIS processes, as confirmed by industry. Moreover, even if expected costs were to include all four elements of the UCIS collection at a total cost of $335,500, we would still, as discussed below, consider this a minimal cost in comparison to the potential benefits from our improved ability to monitor outages on cables that are so vital to both our economy and national security. 40. Public Interest Benefits. We continue to find that the relative concentration of submarine cables serving as conduits for traffic to and from the United States render the Commission's situational awareness and ability to facilitate communications alternatives not only beneficial, but vital to the public interest. These submarine cables are the primary conduit for connectivity between the contiguous United States and Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They also carry 95 percent of U.S. international communications, with the potential for significant impacts on national security and the economy. In some circumstances, the public welfare cost of outage of such communications could be extremely high, as lives and tremendous financial interests are at stake. It is precisely because there is a very substantial public interest in the submarine cables that the Commission has authority to license the use of submarine cables and to condition the use of those lines. Simply put, there is too much riding on these cables for the Commission to be less than fully aware about the status of these crucial lines of communication. 41. We find that the anticipated benefits of the rules that we adopt today clearly outweigh the costs to providers, even with the adjustments made above. When the Commission adopted its original part 4 rules, it observed that previous outage reports required of wireline carriers enabled it to initiate investigations and, when appropriate, take corrective action with respect to certain carriers. The Commission explained that, ``[e]nsuring that the United States has reliable communications requires us to obtain information about communications disruptions and their causes to prevent future disruptions that could otherwise occur from similar causes, as well as to facilitate the use of alternative communications facilities while the disrupted facilities are being restored.'' This situation was borne out when the Commission was hampered in its ability to respond to the CNMI outage due to delayed situational awareness. Based on the record, we conclude that it is entirely appropriate and in the public interest for this agency to systematize, coordinate, review and analyze outage reports from various sources across the industry because this will help ensure that best practices will be identified and shared and recurring problems can be eliminated or mitigated. The Commission's improved situational awareness will help ensure that licensees are consistently and appropriately acting to ensure the availability of submarine cable service, which has direct benefits to public safety and the national defense. 42. Legal Authority. We find that the Commission in fact possesses ample authority to regulate reporting as to the restoration and repair of undersea cables and effects on the related facilities licensed by the Commission. NASCA appears to misunderstand our recitation and reliance on legal authority. The Commission is instituting a uniform and tailored system of accountability designed to ensure that the licenses granted to submarine cable licensees are used to supply ``just and reasonable . . . service in the operation and use of cables so licensed[,]'' and we have explained why our role is critical here where the communications facilities at issue bear on national security and the economy and why the existing voluntary regime fails to adequately inform that role. In other words, the reporting requirements are designed to inform our understanding of whether the facilities that the Commission has licensed are working. Although our intent is to defer to licensees to institute the necessary repairs to their facilities and consider them to have adequate incentive to do so such that our direct involvement seems unwarranted at this time, it could be that enhancing our situational awareness will have the added benefit of improving licensees' broader understanding of outage events. The main goal of our requirements, however, is to help ensure that submarine cable service will be reasonably available. 43. As explained above, availability of service is essential given that submarine cables carry at least 95 percent of international communications traffic in and out of the United States and are the primary means of connectivity for numerous U.S. states and territories. As a result, submarine cable connectivity plays a vital role in the nation's security and economy. Accordingly, we conclude that that the Cable Landing License Act and Executive Order provide the Commission with ample authority to adopt the outage reporting requirements and compliance obligations as proposed in the Notice and as adopted today, and it is critical that we exercise it. 44. Procedural Matters. Regulatory Flexibility Act. Pursuant to the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended, the Commission's Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) relating to this Report and Order. 45. Paperwork Reduction Act. This document contains new information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Public Law 104-13. It will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under Section 3507(d) of the PRA. OMB, the general public, and other Federal agencies are invited to comment on the new or modified information collection requirements contained in this proceeding. 46. In addition, we note that pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107-198, see 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4), we previously sought specific comment on how the Commission might further reduce the information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. In this present document, we have assessed the effects of the new rules adopted herein, which require submarine cable licensees to report when they experience outages of certain durations and causes, on small business concerns and find that the rules adopted here minimize the information collection burden on such entities. 47. Congressional Review Act. The Commission will send a copy of this Report & Order to Congress and the Government Accountability Office [[Page 52361]] pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, see 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A). 48. Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis. We adopt measures to improve the utility and effectiveness of the current scheme for receiving information on submarine cable outages, with the ultimate goal of enhancing both our overall understanding of submarine cable system status and our knowledge regarding specific outages disruptions and restoration efforts. At present, the Commission receives information regarding the operational status of submarine cables on an ad hoc and voluntary basis. We adopt the rules herein with the goal of improving the efficiency and utility of the reporting process for outages and repairs of the submarine cable network, which is a vital feature of the national and international communications infrastructure. 49. The operational status of submarine cables carries commercial, economic, social, financial, and national security implications. It is vital that the United States maintain a robust and secure communications network that can continue to provide service in spite of significant equipment or system failure, and submarine cables are an integral part of that network. 50. Description and Estimate of the Number of Small Entities to Which the Proposed Rules Will Apply. The rules adopted in the Report and Order apply only to entities licensed to construct and operate submarine cables under the Cable Landing License Act. The Report and Order requires only submarine cable licensees affected by a service outage to file outage reports with the Commission describing the outage and restoration. The entities that the Report and Order requires to file reports are a mixture of both large and small entities. The Commission has not developed a small business size standard directed specifically toward these entities. However, as described below, these entities fit into larger categories for which the SBA has developed size standards that provide these facilities or services. 51. Facilities-based Carriers. Facilities-based providers of international telecommunications services would fall into the larger category of interexchange carriers. Neither the Commission nor the SBA has developed a small business size standard specifically for providers of interexchange services. The appropriate size standard under SBA rules is for the category Wired Telecommunications Carriers. 52. Wired Telecommunications Carriers. This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in operating and/or providing access to transmission facilities and infrastructure that they own and/or lease for the transmission of voice, data, text, sound, and video using wired telecommunications networks. Transmission facilities may be based on a single technology or a combination of technologies. Establishments in this industry use the wired telecommunications network facilities that they operate to provide a variety of services, such as wired telephony services, including VoIP services; wired (cable) audio and video programming distribution; and wired broadband Internet services. By exception, establishments providing satellite television distribution services using facilities and infrastructure that they operate are included in this industry.'' In this category, the SBA deems a wired telecommunications carrier to be small if it has 1,500 or fewer employees. Census data for 2007 shows 3,188 firms in this category. Of these, 3,144 had fewer than 1,000 employees. On this basis, the Commission estimates that a substantial majority of the providers of wired telecommunications carriers are small. 53. In the 2009 annual traffic and revenue report, 38 facilities- based and facilities-resale carriers reported approximately $5.8 billion in revenues from international message telephone service (IMTS). Of these, three reported IMTS revenues of more than $1 billion, eight reported IMTS revenues of more than $100 million, 10 reported IMTS revenues of more than $50 million, 20 reported IMTS revenues of more than $10 million, 25 reported IMTS revenues of more than $5 million, and 30 reported IMTS revenues of more than $1 million. Based solely on their IMTS revenues the majority of these carriers would be considered non-small entities under the SBA definition. 54. The 2009 traffic and revenue report also shows that 45 facilities-based and facilities-resale carriers (including 14 who also reported IMTS revenues) reported $683 million for international private line services; of which four reported private line revenues of more than $50 million, 12 reported private line revenues of more than $10 million, 30 reported revenues of more than $1 million, 34 reported private line revenues of more than $500,000; 41 reported revenues of more than $100,000, while 2 reported revenues of less than $10,000. 55. The 2009 traffic and revenue report also shows that seven carriers (including one that reported both IMTS and private line revenues, one that reported IMTS revenues and three that reported private line revenues) reported $50 million for international miscellaneous services, of which two reported miscellaneous services revenues of more than $1 million, one reported revenues of more than $500,000, two reported revenues of more than $200,000, one reported revenues of more than $50,000, while one reported revenues of less than $20,000. Based on its miscellaneous services revenue, this one carrier with revenues of less than $20,000 would be considered a small business under the SBA definition. Based on their private line revenues, most of these entities would be considered non-small entities under the SBA definition. 56. Providers of International Telecommunications Transmission Facilities. According to the 2012 Circuit-Status Report, 61 U.S. international facility-based carriers filed information pursuant to Section 43.82. Some of these providers would fall within the category of Inter-exchange Carriers, some would fall within the category of Wired Telecommunications Carriers, while others may fall into the category of All Other Telecommunications. 57. All Other Telecommunications. This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing specialized telecommunications services, such as satellite tracking, communications telemetry, and radar station operation. This industry also includes establishments primarily engaged in providing satellite terminal stations and associated facilities connected with one or more terrestrial systems and capable of transmitting telecommunications to, and receiving telecommunications from, satellite systems. Establishments providing Internet services or voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services via client-supplied telecommunications connections are also included in this industry. The SBA has developed a small business size standard for All Other Telecommunications, which consists of all such firms with annual receipts of $ 32.5 million or less. For this category, Census Bureau data for 2007 show that there were 2,383 firms that operated for the entire year, and of those firms, a total of 2,346 had annual receipts less than $25 million. Consequently, we conclude that the majority of All Other Telecommunications firms can be considered small. 58. Operators of Undersea Cable Systems. The Report and Order adopts reporting requirements for submarine cable facilities in the event of an outage. Neither the Commission nor the SBA [[Page 52362]] has developed a size standard specifically for operators of undersea cables. Such entities would fall within the large category of Wired Telecommunications Carriers. 59. Operators of Non-Common Carrier International Transmission Facilities. Carriers that provide common carrier international transmission facilities over submarine cables are not required to report on outages, though the Report and Order seeks comment on whether such carriers should be required to provide outage reports. Neither the Commission nor the SBA has developed a small business size standard specifically for providers of non-common carrier terrestrial facilities. The operators of such terrestrial facilities would fall within the larger category of Wired Telecommunications Carriers. 60. Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers. Because some of the international terrestrial facilities that are used to provide international telecommunications services may be owned by incumbent local exchange carriers, we have included small incumbent local exchange carriers in this present RFA analysis, to the extent that such local exchange carriers may operate such international facilities. (Local exchange carriers along the U.S.-border with Mexico or Canada may have local facilities that cross the border.) Neither the Commission nor the SBA has developed a small business size standard specifically for incumbent local exchange carriers. The appropriate size standard under SBA rules is for the category Wired Telecommunications Carriers. 61. Description of Projecting Reporting, Recordkeeping, and Other Compliance Requirements. The Report and Order adopts outage reporting requirements for all submarine cable licensees. An outage occurs when a licensee experiences an event in which (1) An outage related to damages or replacements of a portion of submarine cable system between the submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) at one end of the system and the SLTE at another end of the system for more than 30 minutes; or (2) there is a loss of any fiber pair, including losses due to terminal equipment, on a cable segment for four hours or more, regardless of the number of fiber pairs that comprise the total capacity of the cable segment. After a triggering event, the reporting requirement consists of three filings, the Notification, an Interim Report for unplanned outages, and the Final Report, which provide the Commission important data to improve the Commission's situational awareness on the operational status of submarine cables. The production and transmission of these reports to the Commission may require the use of professionals such as attorneys, engineers, or accountants. However, we conclude that such reports will be based on information already within the reporting entity's possession, and therefore these should be considered routine reports. 62. Steps Taken to Minimize Significant Economic Impact on Small Entities, and Significant Alternatives Considered. The RFA requires an agency to describe any significant, specifically small business, alternatives that it has considered in reaching its proposed approach, which may include the following four alternatives (among others): ``(1) the establishment of differing compliance or reporting requirements or timetables that take into account the resources available to small entities; (2) the clarification, consolidation, or simplification of compliance and reporting requirements under the rule for small entities; (3) the use of performance, rather than design, standards; and (4) an exemption from coverage or the rule, or any part thereof, for small entities.'' 63. Ordering Clauses. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED pursuant to sections 1, 4(i), 4(j), 4(o), of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i), (j), and (o), and pursuant to the Cable Landing License Act of 1921, 47 U.S.C. 34-39 and 3 U.S.C. 301 that this Report and Order in GN Docket No. 15-206 IS ADOPTED. 64. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that parts 1 and 4 of the Commission's rules ARE AMENDED. 65. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this Report and Order SHALL BE effective six months after approval of the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act. 66. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, Reference Information Center, SHALL SEND a copy of this Report and Order, including the Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration. List of Subjects in 47 CFR Parts 1 and 4 Telecommunications, Communications equipment, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements. Federal Communications Commission. Gloria J. Miles, Federal Register Liaison Officer, Office of the Secretary. Final Rules For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Federal Communications Commission amends 47 CFR parts 1 and 4 as follows: PART 1--PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE 0 1. The authority citation for part 1 is revised to read as follows: Authority: 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i), 155, 157, 225, 303(r), 309, 1403, 1404, 1451, and 1452. 0 2. Section 1.767 is amended by adding paragraph (g)(15), revising paragraph (n), and adding paragraph (o) to read as follows: Sec. 1.767 Cable landing licenses. * * * * * (g) * * * (15) Licensees shall file submarine cable outage reports as required in 47 CFR part 4. * * * * * (n)(1) With the exception of submarine cable outage reports, and subject to the availability of electronic forms, all applications and notifications described in this section must be filed electronically through the International Bureau Filing System (IBFS). A list of forms that are available for electronic filing can be found on the IBFS homepage. For information on electronic filing requirements, see part 1, subpart Y, and the IBFS homepage at http://www.fcc.gov/ibfs. See also sections 63.20 and 63.53 of this chapter. (2) Submarine cable outage reports must be filed as set forth in part 4 of this Title. (o) Outage Reporting. Licensees of a cable landing license granted prior to March 15, 2002 shall file submarine cable outage reports as required in part 4 of this Title. * * * * * PART 4--DISRUPTIONS TO COMMUNICATIONS 0 3. The authority citation for part 4 is revised to read as follows: Authority: 47 U.S.C. 34-39, 151, 154, 155, 157, 201, 251, 307, 316, 615a-1, 1302(a), and 1302(b); 5 U.S.C. 301, and Executive Order no. 10530. 0 4. Section 4.1 is revised to read as follows: Sec. 4.1 Scope, basis, and purpose. (a) In this part, the Federal Communications Commission is setting [[Page 52363]] forth requirements pertinent to the reporting of disruptions to communications and to the reliability and security of communications infrastructures. (b) The definitions, criteria, and reporting requirements set forth in Sections 4.2 through 4.13 of this part are applicable to the communications providers defined in Section 4.3 of this part. (c) The definitions, criteria, and reporting requirements set forth in Section 4.15 of this part are applicable to submarine cable providers who have been licensed pursuant to 47 U.S.C. 34-39. 0 5. Section 4.15 is added to read as follows: Sec. 4.15 Submarine cable outage reporting. (a) Definitions. (1) For purposes of this section, ``outage'' is defined as a failure or significant degradation in the performance of a licensee's cable service regardless of whether the traffic can be re- routed to an alternate path. (2) An ``outage'' requires reporting under this section when there is: (i) An outage, including those caused by planned maintenance, of a portion of submarine cable system between submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) at one end of the system and SLTE at another end of the system for more than 30 minutes; or (ii) The loss of any fiber pair, including losses due to terminal equipment, on a cable segment for four hours or more, regardless of the number of fiber pairs that comprise the total capacity of the cable segment. (b) Outage reporting. (1) For each outage that requires reporting under this section, the licensee (or Responsible Licensee as designated by a Consortium) shall provide the Commission with a Notification, Interim Report (subject to the limitations on planned outages in Section 4.15(b)(2)(iii)), and a Final Outage Report. (i) For a submarine cable that is jointly owned and operated by multiple licensees, the licensees of that cable may designate a Responsible Licensee that files outage reports under this rule on behalf of all licensees on the affected cable. (ii) Licensees opting to designate a Responsible Licensee must jointly notify the Chief of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau's Cybersecurity and Communications Reliability Division of this decision in writing. Such notification shall include the name of the submarine cable at issue; and contact information for all licensees on the submarine cable at issue, including the Responsible Licensee. (2) Notification, Interim, and Final Outage Reports shall be submitted by a person authorized by the licensee to submit such reports to the Commission. (i) The person submitting the Final Outage Report to the Commission shall also be authorized by the licensee to legally bind the provider to the truth, completeness, and accuracy of the information contained in the report. Each Final report shall be attested by the person submitting the report that he/she has read the report prior to submitting it and on oath deposes and states that the information contained therein is true, correct, and accurate to the best of his/her knowledge and belief and that the licensee on oath deposes and states that this information is true, complete, and accurate. (ii) The Notification is due within 480 minutes (8 hours) of the time of determining that an event is reportable for the first three years from the effective date of these rules. After three years from the effective date of the rules, Notifications shall be due within 240 minutes (4 hours). The Notification shall be submitted in good faith. Licensees shall provide: The name of the reporting entity; the name of the cable and a list of all licensees for that cable; the date and time of onset of the outage, if known (for planned events, this is the estimated start time/date of the repair); a brief description of the event, including root cause if known; nearest cable landing station; best estimate of approximate location of the event, if known (expressed in either nautical miles and the direction from the nearest cable landing station or in latitude and longitude coordinates); best estimate of the duration of the event, if known; whether the event is planned or unplanned; and a contact name, contact email address, and contact telephone number by which the Commission's technical staff may contact the reporting entity. (iii) The Interim Report is due within 24 hours of receiving the Plan of Work. The Interim Report shall be submitted in good faith. Licensees shall provide: The name of the reporting entity; the name of the cable; a brief description of the event, including root cause, if known; the date and time of onset of the outage; nearest cable landing station; approximate location of the event (expressed in either nautical miles and the direction from the nearest cable landing station or in latitude and longitude); best estimate of when the cable is scheduled to be repaired, including approximate arrival time and date of the repair ship, if applicable; a contact name, contact email address, and contact telephone number by which the Commission's technical staff may contact the reporting entity. The Interim report is not required where the licensee has reported in the Notification that the outage at issue is a planned outage. (iv) The Final Outage Report is due seven (7) days after the repair is completed. The Final Outage Report shall be submitted in food faith. Licensees shall provide: The name of the reporting entity; the name of the cable; whether the outage was planned or unplanned; the date and time of onset of the outage (for planned events, this is the start date and time of the repair); a brief description of the event, including the root cause if known; nearest cable landing station; approximate location of the event (expressed either expressed in either nautical miles and the direction from the nearest cable landing station or in latitude and longitude coordinates); duration of the event, as defined in paragraph (a)(2) of this section; the restoration method; and a contact name, contact email address, and contact telephone number by which the Commission's technical staff may contact the reporting entity. If any required information is unknown at the time of submission of the Final Report but later becomes known, licensees should amend their report to reflect this knowledge. The Final Report must also contain an attestation as described in paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section. (v) The Notification, Interim Report, and Final Outage Reports are to be submitted electronically to the Commission. ``Submitted electronically'' refers to submission of the information using Commission-approved Web-based outage report templates. If there are technical impediments to using the Web-based system during the Notification stage, then a written Notification to the Commission by email to the Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is permitted; such Notification shall contain the information required. Electronic filing shall be effectuated in accordance with procedures that are specified by the Commission by public notice. (c) Confidentiality. Reports filed under this part will be presumed to be confidential. Public access to reports filed under this part may be sought only pursuant to the procedures set forth in 47 CFR 0.461. Notice of any requests for inspection of outage reports will be provided pursuant to 47 CFR 0.461(d)(3). [FR Doc. 2016-18610 Filed 8-5-16; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6712-01-P
![52354 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 152 / Monday, August 8, 2016 / Rules and Regulations
Date certain Federal
Community Effective date authorization/cancellation of sale of Current effective map
State and location assistance no longer
No. flood insurance in community date available in SFHAs
Region III
Maryland:
Laurel, City of, 240053 September 10, 1971, Emerg; November 1, 1978, September 16, 2016 September 16, 2016.
Prince George’s Reg; September 16, 2016, Susp.
County.
Prince George’s 245208 August 7, 1970, Emerg; August 4, 1972, Reg; Sep- ......*do Do.
County, Unincor- tember 16, 2016, Susp.
porated Areas.
Pennsylvania:
Lower Augusta, 421017 January 28, 1974, Emerg; August 1, 1979, Reg; ......do Do.
Township of, September 16, 2016, Susp.
Northumberland
County.
Northumberland, Bor- 420739 June 6, 1974, Emerg; February 2, 1977, Reg; Sep- ......do Do.
ough of, North- tember 16, 2016, Susp.
umberland County.
Point, Township of, 421026 November 19, 1973, Emerg; May 2, 1977, Reg; ......do Do.
Northumberland September 16, 2016, Susp.
County.
Rockefeller, Town- 421152 April 12, 1974, Emerg; April 1, 1986, Reg; Sep- ......do Do.
ship of, North- tember 16, 2016, Susp.
umberland County.
Sunbury, City of, 420743 September 3, 1971, Emerg; July 18, 1977, Reg; ......do Do.
Northumberland September 16, 2016, Susp.
County.
Upper Augusta, 420745 January 19, 1973, Emerg; May 2, 1977, Reg; Sep- ......do Do.
Township of, tember 16, 2016, Susp.
Northumberland
County.
*do = Ditto.
Code for reading third column: Emerg.—Emergency; Reg.—Regular; Susp.—Suspension.
Michael M. Grimm, submarine cables, which will permit the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a
Assistant Administrator for Mitigation, FCC to track and analyze outage trends. summary of the Commission’s Report
Federal Insurance and Mitigation The Report and Order requires all and Order in GN Docket No. 15–206,
Administration, Department of Homeland submarine cable licensees to report adopted on June 24, 2016, and released
Security, Federal Emergency Management service outages to the FCC, defined as a on July 12, 2016. The full text of this
Agency. failure or significant degradation in the document is available for public
[FR Doc. 2016–18510 Filed 8–5–16; 8:45 am] performance of a licensee’s cable service inspection during regular business
BILLING CODE 9110–12–P regardless of whether the traffic can be hours in the FCC Reference Center,
re-routed to an alternate path. Licensees Room CY–A257, 445 12th Street SW.,
must report outages, including those Washington, DC 20554, or online at
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS caused by planned maintenance, of a http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/
COMMISSION portion of a submarine cable system for Daily_Business/2016/db0712/FCC-16-
more than 30 minutes, or the failure or 81A1.pdf. In this Report and Order, the
47 CFR Parts 1 and 4 significant degradation of any fiber pair FCC adopts final rules requiring
[GN Docket No. 15–206; FCC 16–81] lasing for four hours or more. Lastly, the submarine cable licensees to report
Report and Order will improve service outages through the network
Improving Outage Reporting for submarine cable deployment conditions outage reporting systems (NORS). In
Submarine Cables and Enhanced and resiliency through better doing so, the FCC seeks to improve
Submarine Outage Data coordination of inter-agency permit overall submarine cable reliability and
review. resiliency by enhancing the FCC’s
AGENCY: Federal Communications
Commission. visibility into the operational status of
DATES: This rule contains information
ACTION: Final rule. submarine cables, which will permit the
collection requirements that has not
FCC to track and analyze outage trends.
been approved by the Office of
SUMMARY: In this document, the Federal The Report and Order requires all
Management and Budget. The Federal
Communications Commission submarine cable licensees to report
Communications Commission will
(Commission or FCC) adopts final rules service outages to the FCC, defined as a
publish a document in the Federal
of a Report and Order requiring failure or significant degradation in the
Register announcing the effective date
submarine cable licensees to report performance of a licensee’s cable service
rmajette on DSK2TPTVN1PROD with RULES
for this rule.
service outages through the network regardless of whether the traffic can be
outage reporting systems (NORS). In FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: re-routed to an alternate path. Licensees
doing so, the FCC seeks to improve Peter Shroyer, Attorney Advisor, Public must report outages, including those
overall submarine cable reliability and Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, caused by planned maintenance, of a
resiliency by enhancing the FCC’s (202) 418–1575 or peter.shroyer@ portion of a submarine cable system for
visibility into the operational status of fcc.gov. more than 30 minutes, or the failure or
VerDate Sep<11>2014 13:12 Aug 05, 2016 Jkt 238001 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 4700 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\08AUR1.SGM 08AUR1](https://thefederalregister.org/doc/81_FR_52506/page/1.svg)
![Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 152 / Monday, August 8, 2016 / Rules and Regulations 52357
occurred. We find that having 17. With respect to the duration of the quick notification is an essential
awareness of an outage, even without event, licensees must provide their best element in achieving the Commission’s
certain information about that outage, estimate in the notification, but goal of developing comprehensive
helps achieve our goal of improving supplement with further information as situational awareness of submarine
situational awareness as to the it becomes available in their Interim or cable infrastructure. We additionally
operational status of undersea cable Final Reports. As with root cause and note our view that many of the
networks. Reporting via widely location information, our aim in submarine cable operators have the
available electronic means is affordably including this information in the technical capabilities to near-instantly
feasible and quite often a normal part of notification is to provide preliminary detect outages and are standard within
operations. As proposed in the Notice, situational awareness in the immediate the industry.
notifications must contain the name of wake of an outage, which can be 21. That said, given the support on
the reporting entity; the name of the supplemented or corrected through later the record for a longer notification
cable and a list of all licensees for that reports. timeframe and AT&T’s statements that it
cable; whether the event is planned or 18. Timeframe for Notification. Again, will need time to implement these
unplanned; and contact information for we recognize that the determination of requirements with its consortium
the Commission. We recognize, root cause, approximate location, and partners, we will initially, for a three
however, that access to information duration of an outage typically takes year period from the effective date of
about the root cause, approximate much longer than 120 minutes after the these rules, require licensees to notify
location, and estimated duration of an determination that an outage has the Commission of an outage within
outage will often be unavailable in the occurred. Moreover, we agree with eight hours of determining that an event
period immediately following an commenters that licensees’ primary is reportable. Three years after the
operator’s determination that there has objective in the wake of an outage effective date of these rules, licensees
been an undersea cable outage. should be to restore service, and that will be responsible for filing
Accordingly, we modify our original reporting obligations should be notifications within four hours of
proposal from the Notice and require subordinate to that objective. As determining that an event is reportable.
such information only if known at the discussed above, we modify our original After three years, the Commission will
time of the notification. notification proposal to require open a proceeding to revisit. We find
15. We acknowledge that the root licensees to provide root cause that allowing four hours from the time
cause of an outage many times cannot information, approximate location, and of determining an event is reportable,
be determined until after repair work is estimated duration of an outage only not when the event necessarily becomes
done, and only seldom is it known at when available. The notification process reportable, is feasible, particularly as we
the time of an outage. Accordingly, in is intended to be preliminary in nature have allowed for licensees to include
their notifications licensees must and simply provide notice of, not approximations and best estimates in
provide a brief description of the event necessarily detail about, an undersea their filings. This phased-in approach
and need only include information on cable outage, for purposes of situational will give licensees ample time to hone
the root cause if known at the time. If awareness. their reporting structure while still
the root cause is unknown, licensees 19. We also emphasize that the achieving the aforementioned goal of
should specify as such and provide timeframe for reporting starts upon ‘‘the prompt situational awareness. A further
further information where available in time of determining that an event is elongated timeframe does not as
Interim or Final Reports. reportable’’ and not necessarily the adequately serve the Commission’s goal
16. With respect to the location of an moment that an event becomes of acquiring rapid situational awareness
outage, licensees must provide the name reportable. Several commenters, in of submarine cable infrastructure.
of the nearest cable landing station if arguing that the Commission’s proposed 22. Content of Interim Report. We
known, as well as its best estimate of the notification timeframe is infeasible, adopt modified Interim Report content
location of the event, expressed in point to difficulties in receiving the requirements to address concerns that a
either, nautical miles and the direction initial notification. For example, AT&T root cause may not always be known in
from the nearest cable landing station, asserts that ‘‘most notifications of the this adjusted timeframe. We require
or in approximate latitude and occurrence of outages on consortium licensees to report on all of the elements
longitude coordinates. We have added cables that AT&T receives from foreign described above in the original
‘‘the direction from’’ the nearest cable consortium parties are not provided proposal, observing that many of these
landing station (e.g., 15 nautical miles within two hours of the cable failure.’’ elements (name of the reporting
west of [the cable landing station]’’ to Even if the foregoing complications licensee; the name of the cable and a list
improve clarity in reporting, if known. arose preventing a licensee from of all licensees for that cable; the date
We acknowledge that undersea cables knowing of an outage when it became and time of onset of the outage; and a
traverse vast distances, and it can be a reportable, the licensee would only be contact name, contact email address,
complicated and time-consuming task to ‘‘on the clock’’ to report the event when and contact telephone number by which
determine the location of an undersea it determines (i.e., has knowledge that) the Commission’s technical staff may
cable outage. Though we only proposed the event is reportable. This distinction contact the reporting entity) will be
that licensees report the ‘‘approximate should alleviate many of the concerns auto-filled from the Notification and
location’’ of an outage, we clarify that that licensees will need to implement thus will likely require no additional
we do not seek to divert time and new network monitoring processes. work on the part of the reporting entity
attention away from service restoration 20. We continue to believe that barring administrative changes. These
licensees can report within the
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efforts by requiring licensees to provide fields remain important for basic factual
this information. As with root cause proposed two-hour timeframe from references and we see no reason to
information, licensees must provide this determining that an event is reportable, exclude them from the Interim Report.
information if known at the time of the particularly as they need not provide We will also continue to require a brief
notification, and if unknown, licensees substantive detail on the root cause, description of the event, including root
should provide further detail where location, or duration of the outage if cause; nearest cable landing station;
possible in subsequent reports. unavailable at that time; we believe that approximate location of the event
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![52358 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 152 / Monday, August 8, 2016 / Rules and Regulations
(either, in nautical miles and the duration of the event and (2) the automatically populates the fields
direction from the nearest cable landing restoration method. The Notice where information required duplicates
station or in latitude and longitude); and proposed that this type of Final Report, that of the Notification and Interim
the best estimate of the duration of the with the inclusion of these two Report, so the reporting licensee would
event. These are the fields that will additional elements, would enable the not have to reenter data unless it is to
supply the Commission with necessary Commission to work directly with amend or edit a previously-supplied
situational awareness about the status of communication providers using a data- response. We note that the Commission
the outage, particularly when the driven method on collaborative recently adopted a Further Notice of
information is updated from that which reliability improvement initiatives that Proposed Rulemaking which sought
we received in the Notification. We will produce measurable results for comment on applying a two-step
depart slightly from our original undersea cables. reporting process to all covered services,
proposal, however, and will now only 26. Contents of Final Report. As with which, if adopted, would apply to
require the root cause description if both the Notification and Interim submarine cable outage reporting.
known at the time. We are persuaded by Reports, we understand the Interested parties may file comments on
commenters’ arguments that the root commenters’ concerns that particular this issue in the part 4 proceeding.
cause may need extended analysis and information may not be known at the 29. Timeframe for Final Report. We
sometimes may not be known until the time the repairs have been completed adopt our proposal to require licensees
repair is completed. We have again given the complexities of undersea cable to file a Final Report seven calendar
added ‘‘the direction from’’ the nearest repairs. We also take into account that days after the repair is completed. There
cable landing station (e.g., ‘‘15 nautical submarine cable licensees often work is substantial record support for
miles west of [the cable landing together in consortiums, and that requiring submission of this critical
station]’’ to improve clarity in reporting, although one member may know a information within a week following the
if known. We emphasize that an certain element of the Final Report, the repair completion. The Commission has
approximate location of the event and information may not make its way to a responsibility to ensure the reliability
best estimate of the duration of the other consortium members who are also and security of the nation’s
event are all that is required; licensees experiencing an outage or disruption on communications infrastructure, and
will not be penalized for the later- the same cable. For these reasons, we obtaining timely information on
determined accuracy of these interim adopt our proposals for the content communications service disruptions is
responses if they are submitted in good reporting obligations for the Final essential to that goal.
faith. We also adopt our proposal that Report, but with a modification for the
30. We are not persuaded by the
Interim Reports are not required for ‘‘brief description of the event.’’ Here, in
proposal to extend the deadline to a
planned outages so long as the planned a Final Report, a licensee will need to
minimum of 45 days. We find that a
nature of the event was appropriately provide the root cause in its brief
majority of the information that must be
signaled in the Notification. description of the event only if known
included in a Final Report is readily
23. Timeframe for Interim Report. We at the time of filing. Both Verizon and
adopt a modified reporting timeframe AT&T noted that in some cases, available following the repair of the
for the Interim Report. Accordingly, we completion of the root cause analysis submarine cable. As mentioned above,
will require licensees to file an Interim may not be known in the proposed the Commission is aware of the unique
Report, if required, within 24 hours of timeframe, and in some instances, never nature of submarine cable repairs,
receipt of the Plan of Work, which we be determined. Nonetheless, the which is why the Final Report shall be
believe strikes the appropriate balance Commission expects providers to amended, when necessary. Therefore,
between allowing licensees sufficient conduct reasonable due diligence to we decline to adopt Latam’s proposal of
time for necessary coordination to ascertain the root cause of an event. We a 45-day minimum for a Final Report
amply inform the Commission with have also again added ‘‘the direction deadline. The seven day requirement we
useful and timely information. from’’ the nearest cable landing station adopt today provides the Commission
24. Final Report. In the Notice, we (e.g., ‘‘15 nautical miles west of [the critical network outage information
proposed to require licensees to file a cable landing station]’’) to improve within a reasonable time.
Final Report seven days after the repair clarity in reporting, if known. 31. Good Faith Requirements in
is completed. We proposed that the 27. After the submission of the Final Section 4.11. We adopt substantially the
following elements be required in a Report, particular details of an event same wording codified in Section 4.11
Final Report: The name of the reporting may become known or change as of our rules for the submarine cable
entity; the name of the cable; whether research is done and repairs are outage reporting system. We are
the outage was planned or unplanned; completed. In order for the Commission cognizant of the complexities and
the date and time of onset of the outage to obtain the most accurate information, uncertainties that may arise with
(for planned events, this is the start date previous Final Reports (and only Final outages resulting from a damaged cable.
and time of the repair); a brief Reports) must be supplemented after the However, the good faith and attestation
description of the event; nearest cable Final Report if that information requirements will not be violated if the
landing station; approximate location of materially alters the previously reported authorized personnel submitting a
the event (either in nautical miles from material. Amendments to Final Reports report does in fact submit all of the
the nearest cable landing station or in should be made in good faith. information known to them, in good
latitude and longitude); duration of the 28. The parallels of the Final Report faith, at the time of reporting. Also, as
event; the restoration method; a contact content to our existing part 4 rules, in made clear above, licensees have the
conjunction with the NORS platform, duty to amend their Final Reports, in
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name, contact email address, and
contact telephone number by which the create an efficient, streamlined and good faith, if the licensee later learns
Commission’s technical staff may user-friendly system when that the reported information is
contact the reporting entity. implementing these new procedures. inaccurate. Accordingly, consistent with
25. The two components of the Final Furthermore, we believe that the support from the record, we will require
Report that differ from the Notification contents of the Final Report would be a good faith requirement and an
and the Interim Report are (1) the easily compiled, as NORS interface attestation consistent with Section 4.11.
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![52360 Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 152 / Monday, August 8, 2016 / Rules and Regulations
only the two hours that we estimate 41. We find that the anticipated and consider them to have adequate
above. Second, that all 61 cables benefits of the rules that we adopt today incentive to do so such that our direct
licensed in 2014 would experience an clearly outweigh the costs to providers, involvement seems unwarranted at this
outage every year. (We used the number even with the adjustments made above. time, it could be that enhancing our
of licensed cables, rather than the When the Commission adopted its situational awareness will have the
number of cable licensees, because it is original part 4 rules, it observed that added benefit of improving licensees’
common for multiple licensees to previous outage reports required of broader understanding of outage events.
operate on a single cable, and past wireline carriers enabled it to initiate The main goal of our requirements,
experience indicates that consortia (or investigations and, when appropriate, however, is to help ensure that
multiple licensees operating on a single take corrective action with respect to submarine cable service will be
cable) generally designate only one certain carriers. The Commission reasonably available.
licensee to prepare and file the report.) explained that, ‘‘[e]nsuring that the 43. As explained above, availability of
We then used an estimated labor rate of United States has reliable service is essential given that submarine
$50 rather than $80 per hour, to be communications requires us to obtain cables carry at least 95 percent of
consistent with the 2014 OMB information about communications international communications traffic in
Supporting Statement’s UCIS cost disruptions and their causes to prevent and out of the United States and are the
estimate. Thus, 40 × 61 × $50 = future disruptions that could otherwise primary means of connectivity for
$122,000. If we increased this figure by occur from similar causes, as well as to numerous U.S. states and territories. As
25 percent (to account for moving from facilitate the use of alternative a result, submarine cable connectivity
40 to 50 hours reporting per licensee per communications facilities while the plays a vital role in the nation’s security
year), we would arrive at a total of disrupted facilities are being restored.’’ and economy. Accordingly, we
approximately $152,500 for an This situation was borne out when the conclude that that the Cable Landing
analogous reporting requirement. We Commission was hampered in its ability License Act and Executive Order
find this to be a credible annual burden to respond to the CNMI outage due to provide the Commission with ample
estimate based on the record and delayed situational awareness. Based on authority to adopt the outage reporting
analogous UCIS processes, as confirmed the record, we conclude that it is requirements and compliance
by industry. Moreover, even if expected entirely appropriate and in the public obligations as proposed in the Notice
costs were to include all four elements interest for this agency to systematize, and as adopted today, and it is critical
of the UCIS collection at a total cost of coordinate, review and analyze outage that we exercise it.
$335,500, we would still, as discussed reports from various sources across the 44. Procedural Matters. Regulatory
industry because this will help ensure Flexibility Act. Pursuant to the
below, consider this a minimal cost in
Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as
comparison to the potential benefits that best practices will be identified and
amended, the Commission’s Final
from our improved ability to monitor shared and recurring problems can be
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA)
outages on cables that are so vital to eliminated or mitigated. The
relating to this Report and Order.
both our economy and national security. Commission’s improved situational 45. Paperwork Reduction Act. This
40. Public Interest Benefits. We awareness will help ensure that document contains new information
continue to find that the relative licensees are consistently and collection requirements subject to the
concentration of submarine cables appropriately acting to ensure the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
serving as conduits for traffic to and availability of submarine cable service, (PRA), Public Law 104–13. It will be
from the United States render the which has direct benefits to public submitted to the Office of Management
Commission’s situational awareness and safety and the national defense. and Budget (OMB) for review under
ability to facilitate communications 42. Legal Authority. We find that the Section 3507(d) of the PRA. OMB, the
alternatives not only beneficial, but vital Commission in fact possesses ample general public, and other Federal
to the public interest. These submarine authority to regulate reporting as to the agencies are invited to comment on the
cables are the primary conduit for restoration and repair of undersea cables new or modified information collection
connectivity between the contiguous and effects on the related facilities requirements contained in this
United States and Alaska, Hawaii, licensed by the Commission. NASCA proceeding.
American Samoa, Guam, the Northern appears to misunderstand our recitation 46. In addition, we note that pursuant
Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. and reliance on legal authority. The to the Small Business Paperwork Relief
Virgin Islands. They also carry 95 Commission is instituting a uniform and Act of 2002, Public Law 107–198, see 44
percent of U.S. international tailored system of accountability U.S.C. 3506(c)(4), we previously sought
communications, with the potential for designed to ensure that the licenses specific comment on how the
significant impacts on national security granted to submarine cable licensees are Commission might further reduce the
and the economy. In some used to supply ‘‘just and reasonable . . . information collection burden for small
circumstances, the public welfare cost service in the operation and use of business concerns with fewer than 25
of outage of such communications could cables so licensed[,]’’ and we have employees. In this present document,
be extremely high, as lives and explained why our role is critical here we have assessed the effects of the new
tremendous financial interests are at where the communications facilities at rules adopted herein, which require
stake. It is precisely because there is a issue bear on national security and the submarine cable licensees to report
very substantial public interest in the economy and why the existing when they experience outages of certain
submarine cables that the Commission voluntary regime fails to adequately durations and causes, on small business
has authority to license the use of inform that role. In other words, the
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concerns and find that the rules adopted
submarine cables and to condition the reporting requirements are designed to here minimize the information
use of those lines. Simply put, there is inform our understanding of whether collection burden on such entities.
too much riding on these cables for the the facilities that the Commission has 47. Congressional Review Act. The
Commission to be less than fully aware licensed are working. Although our Commission will send a copy of this
about the status of these crucial lines of intent is to defer to licensees to institute Report & Order to Congress and the
communication. the necessary repairs to their facilities Government Accountability Office
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![Federal Register / Vol. 81, No. 152 / Monday, August 8, 2016 / Rules and Regulations 52363
forth requirements pertinent to the issue, including the Responsible contact name, contact email address,
reporting of disruptions to Licensee. and contact telephone number by which
communications and to the reliability (2) Notification, Interim, and Final the Commission’s technical staff may
and security of communications Outage Reports shall be submitted by a contact the reporting entity. The Interim
infrastructures. person authorized by the licensee to report is not required where the licensee
(b) The definitions, criteria, and submit such reports to the Commission. has reported in the Notification that the
reporting requirements set forth in (i) The person submitting the Final outage at issue is a planned outage.
Sections 4.2 through 4.13 of this part are Outage Report to the Commission shall (iv) The Final Outage Report is due
applicable to the communications also be authorized by the licensee to seven (7) days after the repair is
providers defined in Section 4.3 of this legally bind the provider to the truth, completed. The Final Outage Report
part. completeness, and accuracy of the shall be submitted in food faith.
(c) The definitions, criteria, and information contained in the report. Licensees shall provide: The name of
reporting requirements set forth in Each Final report shall be attested by the reporting entity; the name of the
Section 4.15 of this part are applicable the person submitting the report that he/ cable; whether the outage was planned
to submarine cable providers who have she has read the report prior to or unplanned; the date and time of onset
been licensed pursuant to 47 U.S.C. 34– submitting it and on oath deposes and of the outage (for planned events, this is
39. states that the information contained the start date and time of the repair); a
therein is true, correct, and accurate to brief description of the event, including
■ 5. Section 4.15 is added to read as
the best of his/her knowledge and belief the root cause if known; nearest cable
follows: and that the licensee on oath deposes landing station; approximate location of
§ 4.15 Submarine cable outage reporting. and states that this information is true, the event (expressed either expressed in
(a) Definitions. (1) For purposes of complete, and accurate. either nautical miles and the direction
(ii) The Notification is due within 480 from the nearest cable landing station or
this section, ‘‘outage’’ is defined as a
minutes (8 hours) of the time of in latitude and longitude coordinates);
failure or significant degradation in the
determining that an event is reportable duration of the event, as defined in
performance of a licensee’s cable service
for the first three years from the paragraph (a)(2) of this section; the
regardless of whether the traffic can be effective date of these rules. After three
re-routed to an alternate path. restoration method; and a contact name,
years from the effective date of the rules, contact email address, and contact
(2) An ‘‘outage’’ requires reporting Notifications shall be due within 240
under this section when there is: telephone number by which the
minutes (4 hours). The Notification Commission’s technical staff may
(i) An outage, including those caused shall be submitted in good faith.
by planned maintenance, of a portion of contact the reporting entity. If any
Licensees shall provide: The name of required information is unknown at the
submarine cable system between the reporting entity; the name of the
submarine line terminal equipment time of submission of the Final Report
cable and a list of all licensees for that but later becomes known, licensees
(SLTE) at one end of the system and cable; the date and time of onset of the
SLTE at another end of the system for should amend their report to reflect this
outage, if known (for planned events, knowledge. The Final Report must also
more than 30 minutes; or this is the estimated start time/date of
(ii) The loss of any fiber pair, contain an attestation as described in
the repair); a brief description of the paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section.
including losses due to terminal event, including root cause if known;
equipment, on a cable segment for four (v) The Notification, Interim Report,
nearest cable landing station; best and Final Outage Reports are to be
hours or more, regardless of the number estimate of approximate location of the
of fiber pairs that comprise the total submitted electronically to the
event, if known (expressed in either Commission. ‘‘Submitted
capacity of the cable segment. nautical miles and the direction from electronically’’ refers to submission of
(b) Outage reporting. (1) For each the nearest cable landing station or in the information using Commission-
outage that requires reporting under this latitude and longitude coordinates); best approved Web-based outage report
section, the licensee (or Responsible estimate of the duration of the event, if templates. If there are technical
Licensee as designated by a Consortium) known; whether the event is planned or impediments to using the Web-based
shall provide the Commission with a unplanned; and a contact name, contact system during the Notification stage,
Notification, Interim Report (subject to email address, and contact telephone then a written Notification to the
the limitations on planned outages in number by which the Commission’s Commission by email to the Chief,
Section 4.15(b)(2)(iii)), and a Final technical staff may contact the reporting Public Safety and Homeland Security
Outage Report. entity. Bureau is permitted; such Notification
(i) For a submarine cable that is (iii) The Interim Report is due within
shall contain the information required.
jointly owned and operated by multiple 24 hours of receiving the Plan of Work.
Electronic filing shall be effectuated in
licensees, the licensees of that cable The Interim Report shall be submitted
accordance with procedures that are
may designate a Responsible Licensee in good faith. Licensees shall provide:
specified by the Commission by public
that files outage reports under this rule The name of the reporting entity; the
notice.
on behalf of all licensees on the affected name of the cable; a brief description of (c) Confidentiality. Reports filed
cable. the event, including root cause, if under this part will be presumed to be
(ii) Licensees opting to designate a known; the date and time of onset of the confidential. Public access to reports
Responsible Licensee must jointly notify outage; nearest cable landing station; filed under this part may be sought only
the Chief of the Public Safety and approximate location of the event pursuant to the procedures set forth in
Homeland Security Bureau’s (expressed in either nautical miles and
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47 CFR 0.461. Notice of any requests for
Cybersecurity and Communications the direction from the nearest cable inspection of outage reports will be
Reliability Division of this decision in landing station or in latitude and provided pursuant to 47 CFR
writing. Such notification shall include longitude); best estimate of when the 0.461(d)(3).
the name of the submarine cable at cable is scheduled to be repaired,
issue; and contact information for all including approximate arrival time and [FR Doc. 2016–18610 Filed 8–5–16; 8:45 am]
licensees on the submarine cable at date of the repair ship, if applicable; a BILLING CODE 6712–01–P
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Document Created: 2016-08-06 03:08:13
Document Modified: 2016-08-06 03:08:13
| Category | Regulatory Information | |
| Collection | Federal Register | |
| sudoc Class | AE 2.7: GS 4.107: AE 2.106: | |
| Publisher | Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration | |
| Section | Rules and Regulations | |
| Action | Final rule. | |
| Dates | This rule contains information collection requirements that has not been approved by the Office of Management and Budget. The Federal Communications Commission will publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective date for this rule. | |
| Contact | Peter Shroyer, Attorney Advisor, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, (202) 418-1575 or [email protected] | |
| FR Citation | 81 FR 52354 | |
| CFR Citation | 47
CFR
1 47 CFR 4 | |
| CFR Associated | Telecommunications; Communications Equipment and Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements |
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