The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which launches a review of the Commission’s Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS). The Commission aims to modernize its system for reporting and has proposed changes to reduce the reporting burdens for providers during disasters, while increasing the utility of the reports. The changes include simplifying reporting requirements, limiting DIRS reporting obligations for facilities-based providers, and improving federal and state agencies’ access to Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) and DIRS filings. The Commission has also adopted an accompanying Order on Reconsideration that clarifies the situations in which network outage reporting requirements are suspended during DIRS activations.
