At its Open Commission Meeting this week, the Federal Communications Commission extended its Part 4 network outage reporting requirements to apply to VoIP services. The FCC’s Report and Order defines outage reporting for interconnected VoIP service, establishes reporting criteria and thresholds and discusses how the reporting process should work, what information should be reported and confidential treatment of the outage reports. The FCC deferred action on a number of questions, including the possibility of setting thresholds for reporting outages of broadband Internet service and measurements for outages of both interconnected VoIP and broadband Internet services based on performance degradation, as opposed to complete service outage.


UTC issued a statement supporting the FCC's decision, explaining that "[a]dopting the extension of these Part 4 outage reporting requirements should promote the reliability of utility communications and the underlying essential electric, gas and water services they provide. Utilities need reliable communications to support the safe, secure and efficient delivery of essential services to the public at large."

Utilities and other critical infrastructure industries (CII) continue to have concerns about using commercial service providers to support their mission-critical, smart grid and other communications applications. In reply comments filed in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proceeding on the reliability of communications networks, UTC re-iterated that the Commission should not force utilities to use commercial service providers; instead it should allow utilities the ability to choose between private internal networks and commercial service providers as appropriate. Moreover, UTC recommended that the FCC provide utilities with access to suitable auction-exempt spectrum to ensure the safe, efficient and reliable delivery of essential electric, gas and water services to the public at large. Read more »

There is "no silver bullet to address the communication needs of utilities," and utilities need to "use all tools in the toolkit," noted David Masters, Manager, Technology Development at Duke Energy. Masters spoke on Wednesday's highly attended UTC webinar that looked into the challenges of utility communications network modernization. He discussed how Duke confronted the task of integrating millions of discrete points and devices that are part of its envisioned digital grid architecture. Commercial service providers' cellular networks were used to create connectivity within the utility's Wide Area Network (WAN) that enables communications between the enterprise data center and back office. At the same time, he explained that other portions of the network will use other types of communications technology. It was noted that gaps or limited availability in the cellular network are addressed by building in redundancies via a separate, Node-to-Node (N2N) communications system that the utility hold full control over. Masters reported that this N2N network leverages a Wi-Fi with mesh capability (802.11s), and a low frequency, lower bandwidth power line communication solution providing circuit level capabilities was also being considered. Masters noted that there is no one solution to creating an effective utility communications network, and each utility needs to take this effort on a case-by-case basis looking at its own demographic and geographical needs. These points were also made by LightRiver Technologies' Chief Technology Officer Dean Campbell, who provided an overview of the technology options for utilities who need to modernize their infrastructure communications models. He discussed the economics of using packet services, especially the challenges of transporting TDM over packet, and how options such as Ethernet tag switching, PBB-TE, MPLS and the use of carrier Ethernet can support utilities' overall needs to ensure reliability and performance.

Late last week the New York Public Service Commission issued a policy statement that recommends (among other things) that utilities consider using carrier networks for smart grid. Specifically, the PSC stated that “[w]e expect that smart grid technologies will utilize a hybrid of both public and private networks. We urge the electric utilities and communication providers to work together to ensure the appropriate use of commercial facilities, and to limit utility capital investments in dedicated communications infrastructure to those functions where it is appropriate.” Read more »

In the wake of massive consumer complaints about the performance of carrier networks in the aftermath of Tuesday's 5.9 earthquake in Virginia, Admiral Jamie Barnett, Chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau stated that the bureau is contacting wireless carriers and public safety call centers to determine the "cause of reported outages in an immediate effort to identify and address the problems." TR Daily reported that Adm. Barnett said the Commission "[was] very concerned by incidents where emergency wireless calls to 9-1-1 after yesterday's earthquake were hampered by network congestion. Thankfully, there have been no reports thus far about serious injuries or lives lost. Nevertheless, these are the moments when mobile phone service is needed most - and disruptions put lives at risk.”

Representatives from the public safety community seized on the issue to urge Congress to address pending legislation that would reallocate the 700 MHz D-block for public safety. "The events of today once again prove how powerful the argument for dedicated spectrum is for public safety, and becomes so understandable for those today that tried to reach their loved ones by wireless devices and could not do so," said APCO International spokesman Sean Kirkendall in a statement issued earlier this week. APCO’s statement was echoed by Charles Dowd, deputy chief of the New York Police Department, who said "Yesterday's earthquake again highlighted the need for a dedicated nationwide PS broadband network,” adding that “[f]irst responders need mission critical communications that assure the public the level of life saving services they rightfully have come to expect."

Currently, this legislation has been stalled over the debate on whether to auction off the 700 MHz D-block spectrum or directly allocate it to public safety. Furthermore, the cost of building out the network is another matter of contention. UTC recognizes the challenges facing emergency communications response, and supports the creation of a nationwide interoperable public safety network. Additionally, utilities actively support public safety needs on regional and local levels through shared networks, and UTC has been promoting to Congress the merits of encouraging utility partnerships with public safety in building out the proposed 700 MHz public safety broadband network. A partnership between utilities and public safety would boost emergency response and significantly lower the cost of building out this network. UTC will continue to keep its members posted on developments to this legislation.

Utilities are misleading their consumers by choosing to operate their own private networks, said SmartSynch’s Chief Marketing Officer, Campbell McCool. He added that he had spoken with regulators about utilities’ poor decision to have private networks and stated that they were neither cost-effective nor efficient because it was not the utility’s business to be operating private communications networks.

Mr. McCool was speaking at a GridWeek media roundtable discussion on the use of private versus public networks for utilities. Most panelists agreed that there was room for both a private utility network and services offered by public communication providers in deploying smart grid applications. However, Mr.  McCool wholeheartedly disagreed with any role for utility networks at all, including within smart grid operations. There were no utility or public wireless carrier representatives on the panel. Read more »