PUBLIC NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 445 12th St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 DA 17-752 Released: August 9, 2017 PUBLIC SAFETY AND HOMELAND SECURITY BUREAU ANNOUNCES AVAILABILITY OF 911 RELIABILITY CERTIFICATION SYSTEM FOR ANNUAL RELIABILITY CERTIFICATION PS Docket Nos. 13-75, 11-60 By this Public Notice, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (Bureau) announces that the Federal Communications Commission’s (Commission) 911 Reliability Certification System is open for filing of annual reliability certifications,1 which are due on October 15, 2017.2 Covered 911 Service Providers should file certifications using the Commission’s online portal at https://apps2.fcc.gov/rcs911/.3 Under section 12.4(c) of the Commission’s rules, Covered 911 Service Providers are required to take reasonable measures to provide reliable 911 service with respect to three substantive certification requirements: (i) 911 circuit diversity; (ii) central office backup power; and (iii) diverse network monitoring.4 Covered 911 Service Providers must annually certify compliance with each of the three substantive certification requirements or alternative measures.5 1 See Improving 911 Reliability; Reliability and Continuity of Communications Networks, Including Broadband Technologies, Report and Order, 28 FCC Rcd 17476, 17497, 17534, paras. 65, 163 (2013) (911 Reliability Certification Order). This collection of information has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under control number 3060-1202. See Notice of Office of Management and Budget Action, Improving 911 Reliability; Reliability and Continuity of Communications Including Networks, Broadband Technologies, OMB Control No. 3060-1202 (Sept. 14, 2015) https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/DownloadNOA?requestID=268844. 2 October 15, 2017 is a Sunday; filings will therefore be accepted until Monday, October 16, 2017. See 47 CFR § 1.4(j) (stating that in the event a filing deadline falls on a holiday, to include Saturday and Sunday, “the document shall be filed on the next business day”). 3 See 47 CFR § 12.4(a)(4) (defining Covered 911 Service Providers as entities that “[p]rovide[ ] 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities such as call routing, automatic location information (ALI), automatic number identification (ANI), or the functional equivalent of those capabilities, directly to a public safety answering point (PSAP), statewide default answering point, or appropriate local emergency authority,” or that “[o]perate[ ] one or more central offices that directly serve a PSAP”). 4 47 CFR § 12.4(c); see also Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau Announces Effective Dates of 911 Reliability Certification and PSAP Outage Notification Requirements, Public Notice, 29 FCC Rcd 13900, 13901 (2014). 5 See 47 CFR § 12.4. The Commission has clarified that, under section 12.4 of the Commission’s rules, Covered 911 Service Providers may implement and certify an alternative measure for any of the specific certification elements, as long as they “provide an explanation of how such alternative measures are reasonably sufficient to mitigate the risk of failure,” and “how the alternative will mitigate such risk at least to a comparable extent as the 2Covered 911 Service Providers may register new users on the login page at https://apps2.fcc.gov/rcs911/. As with the Commission’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), there are two types of users for the 911 Reliability Certification System: inputters and coordinators. Inputters only have access to information that they submit, while coordinators have access to all information submitted by their company. Users responsible for limited portions of a company’s certification (e.g., particular service areas or topics such as circuit diversity, backup power, or network monitoring) should register as inputters, while users responsible for overseeing each company’s certification as a whole should send a request to receive coordinator status. For security purposes, these requests are handled on a case-by-case basis. Companies that serve numerous Public Safety Answering Points or service areas may choose to enter their responses in an Excel spreadsheet, which is available for download on the main menu page.6 Once users enter all certification information into the 911 Reliability Certification System, the system provides a link to upload a signed attestation from a company’s Certifying Official that such information is true and correct.7 More information on how to complete the certification is available as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) at https://apps2.fcc.gov/rcs911/911RCS_FAQ.html and in a User Manual posted on the main menu of the 911 Reliability Certification System. For further information about the 911 Reliability Certification System and/or the filing process, please contact John Healy at (202) 418-2448 or john.healy@fcc.gov; for individuals seeking to obtain coordinator user status for the 911 Reliability Certification System, please contact John Healy or David Ahn at (202) 418-0853 or david.ahn@fcc.gov; and for further information about the 911 reliability rules, please contact Megan Henry at (202) 418-0829 or megan.henry@fcc.gov. -FCC- measures specified in our rules.” Improving 911 Reliability; Reliability and Continuity of Communications Networks, Including Broadband Technologies, Order on Reconsideration, 30 FCC Rcd 8650, 8651, para. 2 (2015). 6 Please note that only users registered as coordinators will have access to the Excel upload and download capability. 7 See 47 CFR § 12.4(a)(2)-(3) (defining certification as “[a]n attestation by a certifying official, under penalty of perjury, that a covered 911 service provider: (i) Has satisfied the obligations of paragraph (c) of this section. . . . [t]he term “certification” shall include both an annual reliability certification under paragraph (c) of this section and an initial reliability certification under paragraph (d)(1) of this section;” and defining Certifying official as “[a] corporate officer . . . with supervisory and budgetary authority over network operations in all relevant service areas” and explaining attestation requirements).