[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 151 (Monday, August 8, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-19081]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: August 8, 1994]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

47 CFR Part 63

[CC Docket No. 91-273; FCC 94-189]

 

Notification by Common Carriers of Service Disruptions

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Final rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This Second Report and Order (Order) amends the Commission's 
rules regarding the reporting of telephone network outages. The 
amendment enlarges the outage reporting requirement. Previously the 
rules required only outages that potentially affected 50,000 or more of 
a carrier's customers to be reported. As amended, the rules require 
outages potentially affecting 30,000 or more of a carrier's customers 
to be reported. Fire-related incidents impacting 1,000 or more of a 
carrier's lines and outages affecting ``special'' facilities (major 
airports, 911 PSAPs, nuclear power plants, major military installations 
and key government facilities) must also be reported under the amended 
rule. As we stated in that NPRM the information provided by these rules 
is necessary to improve the Commission's ability to monitor outages and 
determine what steps may be necessary to ensure network reliability. 
The amendment will provide the Commission with the additional 
information it needs to perform this task.

EFFECTIVE DATE: September 7, 1994.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Robert E. Kimball, (202) 634-7150, Domestic Services Branch, Domestic 
Facilities Division, Common Carrier Bureau.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Order 
in CC Docket No. 91-273, FCC 94-189, adopted July 14, 1994, and 
released August 1, 1994. The item is available for inspection and 
copying during normal hours in the Commission's FCC Reference Center 
(room 230), 1919 M St., NW., Washington, DC, or a copy may be purchased 
from the duplicating contractor, International Transcription Service, 
Inc. (202) 857-3800, 2100 M St., NW., Suite 140, Washington, DC 20037. 
The Order will be published in the FCC Record.

OMB Review

    The Office of Management and Budget approved the proposals 
contained in the FNPRM and no substantive or material changes have been 
made to the final requirements.
    Title: Amendment of Part 63 of the Commission's Rules to Provide 
for Notification by Common Carriers of Service Disruptions 
(Sec. 63.100).
    OMB Number: 3060-0484.
    Expiration Date: 6/30/96.
    Action: Revised collections.
    Respondents: Business or other for profit.
    Frequency of Response: On occasion. Initial report due 120 minutes 
or 3 days after incident depending on number of potentially affected 
customers and nature of disruption. Final report due twenty-eight or 
thirty days after initial report, depending on nature of disruption.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 200 responses; 5 hours each; 1000 hours 
total. These estimates are the same as contained in the Commission's 
request to OMB which accompanied the NPRM. The information to be 
furnished is generally gathered by carriers during outages and is 
presently being voluntarily provided, so the requirement is not 
burdensome.
    Paperwork Reduction: Public reporting burden for this collection of 
information is estimated to average 5 hours per response, including the 
time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, 
gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing 
the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden 
estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, 
including suggestions for reducing the burden, to the Federal 
Communications Commission, Records Management Division, Room 234, 
Paperwork Reduction Project (3060-0484), Washington, D.C. and to the 
Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (3060-
0484), Washington, D.C. 20503.
    Needs and Uses: Section 63.100 of the Commission's Rules, 47 CFR 
63.100, is amended to provide for the collection of information which 
we believe is essential to our mission of ensuring that the public is 
protected from major disruptions to telephone services. The amendments 
modify 47 CFR Sec. 63.100 to require that local exchange or 
interexchange common carriers or competitive access providers that 
operate either transmission or switching facilities and provide access 
service or interstate or international telecommunications service 
report outages that affect 30,000 or more customers or that affect 
special facilities and report fire-related incidents impacting 1000 or 
more lines. With such reports the FCC can monitor and take effective 
action to ensure network reliability.

Analysis of Proceeding

    1. We amend Sec. 63.100 to require, in place of the present 
requirements, that selected facilities-based common carriers notify the 
Commission in writing: (1) Within 120 minutes of the carrier's 
knowledge that it is experiencing an outage that potentially affects 
50,000 or more of its customers for 30 minutes or more, (2) within 120 
minutes of the carrier's knowledge that it is experiencing an outage 
which affects special offices and facilities and continues for 30 
minutes or more, (3) within 3 days of the carrier's knowledge that it 
is experiencing an outage potentially affecting 30,000 to 50,000 of its 
customers for 30 minutes or more, and (4) within 3 days of the 
carrier's knowledge that it is experiencing a fire-related incident 
that impacts 1000 or more service lines for 30 minutes or more. These 
initial reports, in a prescribed format, are to be served on the 
Commission's monitoring watch officer, on duty 24 hours a day, by 
facsimile or other recorded means. Not later than thirty days after any 
reportable outage or incident under the proposed rules, the carrier 
will file a final service report containing any relevant information 
not contained in the initial report, including specification of the 
root cause of the outage or incident and an analysis of any applicable 
industry ``best practices'' recommended by the Network Reliability 
Council, with the Chief of the Commission's Common Carrier Bureau. 
Carriers are not required to report to the Commission outages affecting 
nuclear power plants, major military installations and key government 
facilities under the proposed rules, but they must report such outages, 
under the terms outlined in the reporting requirements for special 
facilities (with the exception that final reports, when requested by 
the National Communications System, are due in twenty-eight days), to 
the National Communications System. The National Communications System 
will determine if national security/emergency preparedness concerns 
would be adversely implicated by further reporting such outages, and, 
as further reporting is determined to be appropriate in each instance, 
report these outages to the Commission. The rules further require 
interexchange carriers (IXCs), and local exchange carriers (LECs) 
reporting tandem outages, to use real-time blocked calls to determine 
whether criteria for reporting an outage have been reached. For 
purposes of complying with the required 50,000 customer threshold, 
IXCs, and LECs reporting tandem outages, would be required to report 
outages where more than 150,000 calls are blocked during a 30 minute 
period and, for purposes of complying with the 30,000 customer 
threshold, to report outages where more than 90,000 calls are blocked 
during a 30 minute period. Finally, the amended rule requires carriers 
experiencing an outage reportable as having affecting a 911 facility to 
notify the managers of that facility as soon as possible by any 
electronic means so that measures may be taken to mitigate the effects 
of the outage.
    2. Present Sec. 63.100 of the Commission's Rules, which this Order 
amends, was established in response to outage incidents that occurred 
in 1990 and 1991, largely as a result of the introduction of new 
technology into the telecommunications infrastructure. In January of 
1990, for example, AT&T experienced a large scale service failure when 
software used with its Signaling System 7 contained a coding error. 
Other major interexchange carriers also experienced significant 
outages. In June and July of 1991, local exchange carriers Pacific Bell 
and Bell Atlantic experienced major outages. At that time, the 
Commission had no systematic way by which to become informed quickly of 
significant service disruptions and was unable to determine whether 
certain kinds of technology or equipment threatened service 
reliability. Present Sec. 63.100 provided a vehicle by which the 
Commission became better and more quickly informed of certain 
significant outages.
    3. The Report and Order adopting present Sec. 63.100, 7 FCC Rcd 
2010 (Released February 27, 1992), 56 FR 7883, March 5, 1992, requested 
that the Network Reliability Council, a federal advisory committee 
created by the Commission to provide advice to the Commission for 
enhancing network reliability, study and recommend suitable additions 
to the reporting requirement in Sec. 63.100. Section 63.100, as amended 
in the Order, incorporates many of the outage reporting recommendations 
of the Council. The Council's membership includes all sectors of the 
telecommunications industry, as well as state regulators and 
representatives of large and small telecommunications consumers. All 
Council meetings are open to the public. Members of the public are 
invited to present written submissions for the Council's consideration. 
The final reporting recommendations, sent to the Commission on December 
29, 1992, were the result of months of painstaking research by the 
Threshold Reporting Group, a research committee of the Council composed 
of industry and consumer telecommunications experts. A variety of 
possible reporting thresholds and conditions were considered by these 
experts, by the Council and by the Commission. (For a detailed research 
summary and analysis, see the Final Recommendation of the Threshold 
Reporting Group of the Network Reliability Council, December 15, 1992, 
available in room 6325 of the Commission's offices at 2025 M Street 
NW., Washington, DC 20554, or through the Commission's contracted 
copier, International Transcription Service, 2100 M Street NW., Suite 
140, Washington, DC 20037, phone 202/857-3800.)
    4. The Commission studied the recommendations and concluded that, 
with certain modifications, their establishment in the form of a 
proposed new Sec. 63.100, while cost-effective and not unduly 
burdensome to the reporting parties, would significantly enhance the 
capacity of the Commission to monitor outages and to encourage the 
industry to find ways to further ensure network reliability. The 
Commission issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order and Further Notice of 
Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in this matter on December 1, 1993, 58 FR 
64280, December 6, 1993. The rules proposed therein are generally the 
same as the amendments established by this Order. Sixteen comments and 
fourteen reply comments to the NPRM were filed. The Commission 
carefully considered all comments and has incorporated some of the 
suggestions of commenters in the amendments. Certain questions such as 
provisions for more equitable funding for reliability testing have been 
referred to the Network Reliability Council for further 
recommendations. The broader collection of information provided for in 
the amendments is essential to the mission of the FCC and is intended 
to protect the public from major disruptions to telephone services. To 
do this, the Commission needs to become aware of a greater number of 
outages, especially LEC switch outages and outages affecting facilities 
whose importance is essential to the public welfare. The lower 
threshold provided for in the amendments will increase by about three 
times the number of LEC switch outages reported and will require the 
reporting of outages affecting 911 emergency services, major airports, 
nuclear power plants, major military installations and key government 
facilities. With the information collected, the Commission will be able 
to better monitor network reliability and take steps as needed to 
prevent or mitigate outages. The information to be furnished by 
carriers pursuant to these amendments or its equivalent is normally 
collected by them, the collection burden has been minimized, and the 
Commission estimates that the total annual reporting and recordkeeping 
burden that will result from each collection of information is the same 
as that reported to OMB with the Commission's NPRM.

Ordering Clauses

    Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 1, 4(i), and 201 of the 
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. Secs. 151, 154 and 
201, Sec. 63.100 of the Commission's Rules, 47 CFR 63.100, Is Amended 
as set forth below, effective 30 days after publication in the Federal 
Register.
    It is Further Ordered, that, the Secretary shall cause a summary of 
this Order to be published in the Federal Register which shall include 
a statement describing how members of the public may obtain the 
complete text of this Commission decision. The Secretary shall also 
provide a copy of this Order to each state utility commission.

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 63

    Communications common carries, Reporting and recordkeeping 
requirements, Service disruptions.

Federal Communications Commission.
William F. Caton,
Acting Secretary.

Rule Changes

    Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 63, is amended as 
follows:

PART 63--EXTENSION OF LINES AND DISCONTINUANCE, REDUCTION, OUTAGE 
AND IMPAIRMENT OF SERVICE BY COMMON CARRIERS; AND GRANTS OF 
RECOGNIZED PRIVATE OPERATING AGENCY STATUS

    1. The authority citation for part 63 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: Sections 1, 4(i), 4(j), 201-205, 218 and 403 of the 
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. Secs. 151, 154(i), 
154(j), 201-205, 218, and 403, unless otherwise noted.

    2. Sec. 63.100 is revised to read as follows:


Sec. 63.100  Notification of service outage.

    (a) As used in this section:
    (1) Outage is defined as a significant degradation in the ability 
of a customer to establish and maintain a channel of communications as 
a result of failure or degradation in the performance of a carrier's 
network.
    (2) Customer is defined as a user purchasing telecommunications 
service from a common carrier.
    (3) Special offices and facilities are defined as major airports, 
major military installations, key government facilities, nuclear power 
plants and 911 public service answering points (PSAPs).
    (4) An outage which potentially affects a 911 special facility is 
defined as an outage which disrupts more than 25% of the lines to any 
PSAP without providing automatic rerouting to an alternative PSAP.
    (5) Major airports are defined as those airports described by the 
Federal Aviation Administration as large or medium hubs. The member 
agencies of the National Communications System (NCS) will determine 
which of their locations are ``major military installations'' and ``key 
government facilities.''
    (6) An outage which potentially affects a major airport is defined 
as an outage that disrupts 50% or more of the air traffic control links 
or other FAA communications links to any major airport, any outage that 
has caused an ARTCC or major airport to lose its radar, any ARTCC or 
major airport outage that is likely to be of media interest, any outage 
that causes a loss of both primary and backup facilities at any ARTCC 
or major airport, and any outage to an ARTCC or major airport that is 
deemed important by the FAA as indicated by FAA inquiry to the carrier 
management personnel.
    (7) A mission-affecting outage is defined as an outage that is 
deemed critical to national security/emergency preparedness (NS/EP) 
operations of the affected facility by the National Communications 
System member agency operating the affected facility.
    (b) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or 
competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching 
facilities and provides access service or interstate or international 
telecommunications service, that experiences an outage which 
potentially affects 50,000 or more of its customers on any facilities 
which it owns, operates or leases, must notify the Commission if such 
outage continues for 30 or more minutes. Satellite carriers and 
cellular carriers are exempt from this reporting requirement. 
Notification must be served on the Commission's Monitoring Watch 
Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the FCC headquarters building in 
Washington, D.C., or on a secondary basis it may be served on the 
Commission's Watch Officer on duty at the FCC's facility at Grand 
Island, Nebraska. The notification must be by facsimile or other record 
means delivered within 120 minutes of the carrier's first knowledge 
that the service outage potentially affects 50,000 or more customers, 
if the outage continues for 30 or more minutes. Notification shall 
identify a contact person who can provide further information, the 
telephone number at which the contact person can be reached, and what 
information is known at the time about the service outage including: 
the date and estimated time (local time at the location of the outage) 
of commencement of the outage; the geographic area affected; the 
estimated number of customers affected; the types of services affected 
(e.g. interexchange, local, cellular); the duration of the outage, i.e. 
time elapsed from the estimated commencement of the outage until 
restoration of full service; the estimated number of blocked calls 
during the outage; the apparent or known cause of the incident, 
including the name and type of equipment involved and the specific part 
of the network affected; methods used to restore service; and the steps 
taken to prevent recurrences of the outage. Carriers must indicate, 
when specifying the types of services affected by any reportable 
outage, when 911 is one of those services, whether more than 25% of the 
lines to any PSAP were disrupted and there was no automatic rerouting 
to an alternate PSAP. The report shall be captioned Initial Service 
Disruption Report. Lack of any of the above information shall not delay 
the filing of this report. Not later than thirty days after the outage, 
the carrier shall file with the Chief, Common Carrier Bureau, a Final 
Service Disruption Report providing all available information on the 
service outage, including any information not contained in its Initial 
Service Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of 
the outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application 
in the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards 
identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or 
ameliorate outages of the reported type.
    (c) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or 
competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching 
facilities and provides access service or interstate or international 
telecommunications service, that experiences an outage which 
potentially affects at least 30,000 and less than 50,000 of its 
customers on any facilities which it owns, operates or leases, must 
notify the Commission if such outage continues for 30 or more minutes. 
Satellite carriers and cellular carriers are exempt from this reporting 
requirement. Notification must be served on the Commission's Monitoring 
Watch Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the FCC headquarters building 
in Washington, DC, or on a secondary basis it may be served on the 
Commission's Watch Officer on duty at the FCC's facility at Grand 
Island, Nebraska. The notification must be by facsimile or other record 
means delivered within 3 days of the carrier's first knowledge that the 
service outage potentially affects at least 30,000 but less than 50,000 
customers, if the outage continues for 30 or more minutes.
    Notification shall identify the carrier and a contact person who 
can provide further information, the telephone number at which the 
contact person can be reached, and what information is known at the 
time about the service outage including: the date and estimated time 
(local time at the location of the outage) of commencement of the 
outage; the geographic area affected; the estimated number of customers 
affected; the types of services affected (e.g. interexchange, local, 
cellular); the duration of the outage, i.e. time elapsed from the 
estimated commencement of the outage until restoration of full service; 
the estimated number of blocked calls during the outage; the apparent 
or known cause of the incident, including the name and type of 
equipment involved and the specific part of the network affected; 
methods used to restore service; and the steps taken to prevent 
recurrences of the outage. Carriers must indicate, when specifying the 
types of services affected by any reportable outage, when 911 is one of 
those services whether more than 25% of the lines to any PSAP were 
disrupted and there was no automatic rerouting to an alternate PSAP. 
The report shall be captioned Initial Service Disruption Report. Lack 
of any of the above information shall not delay the filing of this 
report. Not later than thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall 
file with the Chief, Common Carrier Bureau, a Final Service Disruption 
Report providing all available information on the service outage, 
including any information not contained in its Initial Service 
Disruption Report and detailing specifically the root cause of the 
outage and listing and evaluating the effectiveness and application in 
the immediate case of any best practices or industry standards 
identified by the Network Reliability Council to eliminate or 
ameliorate outages of the reported type.
    (d) Any local exchange or interexchange carrier or competitive 
access provider that operates transmission or switching facilities and 
provides access service or interstate or international 
telecommunications service that experiences a fire-related incident in 
any facilities which it owns, operates or leases that impacts 1000 or 
more service lines must notify the Commission if the incident continues 
for a period of 30 minutes or longer. Satellite carriers and cellular 
carriers are exempt from this reporting requirement. Notification must 
be served on the Commission's Monitoring Watch Officer, on duty 24 
hours a day in the FCC headquarters building in Washington, DC, or on a 
secondary basis it may be served on the Commission's Watch Officer on 
duty at the FCC's facility at Grand Island, Nebraska. The notification 
must be by facsimile or other recorded means delivered within 3 days of 
the carrier's first knowledge that the incident is fire-related, 
impacting 1000 or more lines for thirty or more minutes. Notification 
shall identify the carrier and a contact person who can provide further 
information, the telephone number at which the contact person can be 
reached, and what information is known at the time about the service 
outage including: the date and estimated time (local time at the 
location of the outage) of commencement of the outage; the geographic 
area affected; the estimated number of customers affected; the types of 
services affected (e.g. interexchange, local cellular); the duration of 
the outage, i.e. time elapsed from the estimated commencement of the 
outage until restoration of full service; the estimated number of 
blocked calls during the outage; the apparent or known cause of the 
incident, including the name and type of equipment involved and the 
specific part of the network affected; methods used to restore service; 
and the steps taken to prevent recurrences of the outage. Carriers must 
indicate, when specifying the types of services affected by any 
reportable outage, when 911 is one of those services whether more than 
25% of the lines to any PSAP were disrupted and there was no automatic 
rerouting to an alternate PSAP. The report shall be captioned Initial 
Service Disruption Report. Lack of any of the above information shall 
not delay the filing of this report. Not later than thirty days after 
the incident, the carrier shall file with the Chief, Common Carrier 
Bureau, a Final Report providing all available information on the 
incident, including any information not contained in its Initial Report 
and detailing specifically the root cause of the incident and listing 
and evaluating the effectiveness and application in the immediate case 
of any best practices or industry standards identified by the Network 
Reliability Council to eliminate or ameliorate incidents of the 
reported type.
    (e) Any local exchange or interexchange common carrier or 
competitive access provider that operates transmission or switching 
facilities and provides access service or interstate or international 
telecommunications service, that experiences an outage on any 
facilities which it owns, operates or leases which potentially affects 
special offices and facilities must notify the Commission if such 
outage continues for 30 or more minutes regardless of the number of 
customers affected. Satellite carriers and cellular carriers are exempt 
from this reporting requirement. Notification must be served on the 
Commission's Monitoring Watch Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the 
FCC headquarters building in Washington, DC, or on a secondary basis it 
may be served on the Commission's Watch Officer on duty at the FCC's 
facility at Grand Island, Nebraska. The notification must be by 
facsimile or other record means delivered within 120 minutes of the 
carrier's first knowledge that the service outage potentially affects a 
special facility, if the outage continues for 30 or more minutes. 
Notification shall identify a contact person who can provide further 
information, the telephone number at which the contact person can be 
reached, and what information is known at the time about the service 
outage including: the date and estimated time (local time at the 
location of the outage) of commencement of the outage; the geographic 
area affected; the estimated number of customers affected; the types of 
services affected (e.g. 911 emergency services, major airports); the 
duration of the outage, i.e. time elapsed from the estimated 
commencement of the outage until restoration of full service; the 
estimated number of blocked calls during the outage; the apparent or 
known cause of the incident, including the name and type of equipment 
involved and the specific part of the network affected; methods used to 
restore service; and the steps taken to prevent recurrences of the 
outage. Carriers must indicate, when specifying the types of services 
affected by any reportable outage, when 911 is one of those services 
whether more than 25% of the lines to any PSAP were disrupted and there 
was no automatic rerouting to an alternate PSAP. The report shall be 
captioned Initial Service Disruption Report. Lack of any of the above 
information shall not delay the filing of this report. Not later than 
thirty days after the outage, the carrier shall file with the Chief, 
Common Carrier Bureau, a Final Service Disruption Report providing all 
available information on the service outage, including any information 
not contained in its Initial Service Disruption Report and detailing 
specifically the root cause of the outage and listing and evaluating 
the effectiveness and application in the immediate case of any best 
practices or industry standards identified by the Network Reliability 
Council to eliminate or ameliorate outages of the reported type. Under 
this rule, carriers are not required to report outages affecting 
nuclear power plants, major military installations and key government 
facilities to the Commission. Report at these facilities will be made 
according to the following procedures:
    (1) When there is a mission-affecting outage, the affected facility 
will report the outage to the National Communications System (NCS) and 
call the service provider in order to determine if the outage is 
expected to last 30 minutes. If the outage is not expected to, and does 
not, last 30 minutes, it will not be reported to the FCC. If it is 
expected to last 30 minutes or does last 30 minutes, the NCS, on the 
advice of the affected special facility, will either:
    (i) Forward a report of the outage to the Commission, supplying the 
information for initial reports affecting special facilities specified 
in this section of the Commission's Rules;
    (ii) Forward a report of the outage to the Commission, designating 
the outage as one affecting ``special facilities,'' but reporting it at 
a level of detail that precludes identification of the particular 
facility involved; or
    (iii) Hold the report at the NCS due to the critical nature of the 
application.
    (2) If there is to be a report to the Commission, a written or oral 
report will be given by the NCS within 120 minutes of an outage to the 
Commission's Monitoring Watch Officer, on duty 24 hours a day in the 
FCC headquarters building in Washington, DC, or on a secondary basis it 
may be served on the Commission's Watch Officer on duty at the FCC's 
facility at Grand Island, Nebraska. If the report is oral, it is to be 
followed by a written report the next business day. Those carriers 
whose service failures are in any way responsible for the outage must 
consult with NCS upon its request for information.
    (3) If there is to be a report to the Commission, the service 
provider will provide a written report to the NCS, supplying the 
information for final reports for special facilities required by this 
section of the Commission's rules. The service provider's final report 
to the NCS will be filed within 28 days after the outage, allowing the 
NCS to then file the report with the Commission within 30 days after 
the outage. If the outage is reportable as described in paragraph 
(e)(2) of this section, and the NCS determines that the final report 
can be presented to the Commission without jeopardizing matters of 
national security or emergency preparedness, the NCS will forward the 
report as provided in either paragraphs (e)(1)(i) or (e)(1)(ii) of this 
section to the Commission.
    (f) If an outage is determined to have affected a 911 facility so 
as to be reportable as a special facilities outage, the carrier whose 
duty it is to report the outage to the FCC shall as soon as possible by 
telephone or other electronic means notify any official who has been 
designated by the management of the affected 911 facility as the 
official to be contacted by the carrier in case of a telecommunications 
outage at that facility. The carrier shall convey all available 
information to the designated official that will be useful to the 
management of the affected facility in mitigating the affects of the 
outage on callers to that facility.
    (g) In the case of LEC end offices, carriers will use the number of 
lines terminating at the office for determining whether the criteria 
for reporting an outage has been reached. In the case of IXC or LEC 
tandem facilities, carriers must, if technically possible, use real-
time blocked calls to determine whether criteria for reporting an 
outage have been reached. Carriers must report IXC and LEC tandem 
outages where more than 150,000 calls are blocked during a period of 30 
or more minutes for purposes of complying with the required 50,000 
potentially affected customers threshold and must report such outages 
where more than 90,000 calls are blocked during a period of 30 or more 
minutes for purposes of complying with the 30,000 potentially affected 
customers threshold. Carriers may use historical data to estimate 
blocked calls when required real-time blocked call counts are not 
possible. When using historical data, carriers must report incidents 
where more than 50,000 calls are blocked during a period of 30 or more 
minutes for purposes of complying with the required 50,000 potentially 
affected customers threshold and must report incidents where more than 
30,000 calls are blocked during a period of 30 or more minutes for 
purposes of complying with the 30,000 potentially affected customers 
threshold.

[FR Doc. 94-19081 Filed 8-5-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-M