Report No. DC-2626    ACTION IN DOCKET CASE                   July 14, 1994

      TELEPHONE SERVICE OUTAGE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS STRENGTHENED
                            (CC DOCKET 91-273)

     The Commission today adopted revised standards for reporting
telephone service outages as part of its ongoing efforts to
improve the reliability of the nation's telecommunications
networks.  Telephone outages are infrequent in this country, but
when they occur, outages can cause the loss of telephone service
to a large number of users and have a potentially devastating
effect on the businesses and people involved.  Telephone outages
may disrupt the lives of millions of consumers, cause economic
loss, or even threaten life and property.

     In the order adopted today, the Commission amended its
telephone service outage reporting requirements by reducing the
number of potentially affected customers from 50,000 to 30,000  
as the baseline for reporting telephone service outages lasting
over 30 minutes to the FCC. Use of the lower threshold will
triple the number of central offices that would be required to
report outages. The Commission also required the reporting of
outages affecting "special offices and facilities," such as major
airports, 911 facilities, nuclear power plants, major military
installations and key government facilities, regardless of the
number of customers affected.  The new rules also require that in
their outage reports carriers list, and evaluate, the
effectiveness of relevant industry best practices or standards
that are described in the report issued June 10, 1993, by the
Commission's Network Reliability Council (NRC).
 
     In addition, the Commission will require carriers to notify
the management of any 911 facility of an outage affecting the
facility.  It will also require the reporting of fire-related
incidents affecting 1000 or more service lines. 

     Most of these changes were recommended by the NRC, a broad-
based group that includes industry leaders and consumers.  The
Commission created the NRC to provide recommendations for
avoiding or minimizing the impact of public telephone network
outages. In January the Commission renewed and revised the NRC's
charter to address emerging issues related to increased
interconnection of new and different kinds of telecommunications
service providers to the public telephone network, including
cable television and wireless service providers. 
       
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     The Commission asked the newly-expanded NRC to take under
advisement the issues of whether reporting of outages affecting
911 and other special facilities should include other entities,
such as satellite and cellular carriers; whether and how a
funding structure for the Internetwork Interoperability Test Plan
should be designed; and whether customers of carriers are
adequately informed of service outages.

     The outage reports will be analyzed by the FCC to determine
whether the best practices for ensuring network reliability,
identified by the NRC, are being implemented by carriers and
whether they are effective in reducing telephone service outages. 
They will also ensure that carriers are aware of best practices. 
Finally, the reports also will be analyzed and shared among the
telecommunications industry by the Alliance for
Telecommunications Industry Solutions, a telecommunications
industry group. 

     Action by the Commission July 14, 1994, by Second Report and
Order (FCC 94-189).  Chairman Hundt, Commissioners Quello,
Barrett, Ness and Chong, with Commissioner Barrett issuing a
separate statement. 

                           - FCC - 

     News Media contacts: Susan Lewis Sallet and Rosemary Kimball
at (202) 418-0500.
     Common Carrier Bureau contact: Robert Kimball at (202) 634-
7150.