FCC wades into Sandy phone outages

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced a series of nationwide hearings to investigate the deficiencies of the country's wireless, VoIP and emergency telecommunications systems.

As Speed Matters reported last week, throughout the storm-hit Northeast, cell phone tower backups failed to provide sufficient power for the length of the outages. In some cases, the carriers - who had been fighting the FCC rule to include 8 hours of backup - hadn't built the facilities. But more often, back simply didn't last long enough. In addition, VoIP systems, which usually depend on external power sources, also failed. As a result, one-quarter of residents in the storm's path lost phone communication.

In response to these problems, the FCC will be holding a series of nationwide hearings to begin in 2013 to explore such questions as: "What level of service is needed and expected during emergencies and for what modes of communications?" and "When commercial power is unavailable, how long should back-up power sources be expected to last?"

Speed Matters endorses strong regulations that require backup power.

FCC post-Superstorm Sandy field hearings (FCC news release, Nov. 21, 2012)

Sandy revealed shortcomings of VoIP and wireless (Speed Matters, Nov. 26, 2012)