In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and other recent natural disasters, there is increasing focus on how communications networks weather these storms. In addition to significant, sometimes catastrophic, harm to life and property, severe weather events also sometimes create significant network disruptions or outages, leaving business and residential customers without critical voice and data services. These events make the Federal Communications Commission’s recent expansion of its outage reporting requirements particularly timely.

Under rules that are effective as of yesterday, the FCC has expanded its communications network outage reporting requirements to include providers of interconnected Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. As a result, when a VoIP provider suffers an “outage,” defined by the FCC as “a network failure or degradation that significantly degrades the end user’s ability to make or maintain communications,” the VoIP provider must report the outage to the FCC if the outage meets specific criteria. The FCC states that in the case of interconnected VoIP, it interprets "outage" to mean a complete loss of service and/or connectivity to customers, and the provider is deemed to have suffered a reportable outage: 

• "If the outage even potentially affects a 911 special facility and lasts at least 30 minutes, then within 4 hours of having knowledge of the outage, the provider has to notify the FCC of the outage, through NORS [the Network Outage Reporting System]. The interconnected VoIP service provider also has to contact, as soon as possible, the appropriate personnel at the affected or potentially affected 911 special facility with information that could help mitigate any effects of the outage.
• If the interconnected VoIP service provider experiences an outage on any of its own facilities or those it operates, leases or otherwise uses (not including 911 special facilities) and the outage lasts at least 30 minutes and has the potential to affect at least 900,000 user minutes, then within 24 hours of having knowledge of the outage, the provider has to notify the FCC of the outage, through NORS.
• If the outage even potentially affects any “special offices and facilities” and the outage lasts at least 30 minutes, then within 24 hours of having knowledge of the outage, the interconnected VoIP service provider has to notify the FCC of the outage, through NORS."

The expanded rules now apply to facilities-based and non-facilities-based interconnected VoIP providers. The rules define a VoIP service as “interconnected” if it (1) enables realtime, two-way voice communications; (2) requires a broadband connection from the user’s location; (3) requires Internet protocol-compatible customer premises equipment (CPE); and (4) permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the public switched telephone network. "Special offices and facilities" include certain military, government, power plant and airport facilities. The rules apply even if the VoIP service is not “facilities based,” meaning that the VoIP provider neither owns nor has a possessory interest in the “channels of communication” used to provide the service. As a result, these FCC rules explicitly extend to so-called “over-the-top” VoIP providers.

On Friday, the FCC published a small entity compliance guide that discusses these new requirements. As network outage issues gain attention and VoIP services expand, interconnected VoIP providers should become familiar with these requirements. This guide provides a useful starting point in anticipation of the next severe weather event or possible service disruption.