BEFORE THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of ) ) Recommendations of the Independent ) Panel Reviewing the Impact of ) EB Docket No. 06-119 Hurricane Katrina on ) Communications Networks )
TO: The Commission
REPLY COMMENTS OF COX ENTERPRISES, INC.
Alexandra M. Wilson Scott S. Patrick Vice President of Public Policy Jason E. Rademacher Cox Enterprises, Inc. 1225 19th Street, NW Its Attorneys Suite 450 Washington D.C. 20036-2458 DOW LOHNES PLLC 1200 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W. Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 776-2000 (phone) (202) 776-2222 (fax)
August 21, 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS...... 1
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY...... 1
I. A STRONG PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IS CRITICAL TO EFFECTIVE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND DISASTER RECOVERY...... 3
II. THE PRIVATE SECTOR MUST CONTINUE TO TAKE A LEADERSHIP ROLE IN PLANNING FOR AND RESPONDING TO EMERGENCIES...... 5
A. Cox’s Employees Are the Foundation of the Company’s Disaster Response...... 5
B. Cox Maintains a Company-Wide Commitment to Disaster Preparedness...... 6
C. Cox’s Business Continuity Plans Performed Exceptionally Well in the Aftermath of Last Year’s Hurricanes...... 7
1. Cox’s Disaster Recovery Effort Led to the Quickest Possible Resumption of Service to Affected Areas...... 7
2. Cox’s Businesses and Employees Throughout the Country Provided an Overwhelming Humanitarian Response to the Hurricane Crises...... 10
D. Cox is Dedicated To Using Its Experience in Last Year’s Hurricanes To Strengthen It Future Disaster Responses ...... 11
III. THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA ARE PLAYING AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT ROLE IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE --AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES MUST RECOGNIZE THEIR GROWING IMPORTANCE TO POST- DISASTER RECOVERY...... 12
IV. ADOPTING MANY OF THE KATRINA PANEL’S RECOMMENDATIONS WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THE COUNTRY’S EMERGENCY PLANNING AND RESPONSE...... 15
A. The Commission Should Work With the Communications Industry To Develop Preparedness Guidelines, But Should Not Impose One-Size-Fits-All Requirements. 15
B. Cox Supports the Katrina Panel’s Proposals Regarding Voluntary Waivers and Outage Reporting...... 17
C. The Commission Should Do All It Can To Improve Disaster-Preparedness Coordination Between Federal, State, and Local Government and the Communications Industry...... 18
D. Cox Supports the Implementation of Voluntary NRIC Best Practices for 911 and E911 Service Reliability...... 21
E. The Commission Should Use Its Ongoing EAS Proceeding To Improve Emergency Communications to the Public...... 22
CONCLUSION...... 23
2 BEFORE THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of ) ) Recommendations of the Independent ) Panel Reviewing the Impact of ) EB Docket No. 06-119 Hurricane Katrina on ) Communications Networks )
TO: The Commission
REPLY COMMENTS OF COX ENTERPRISES, INC.
Cox Enterprises, Inc. (“Cox”), by its attorneys and pursuant to Section 1.415 of the
Commission’s rules, 47 C.F.R. § 1.415, hereby files these reply comments in response to the
Commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the above-captioned proceeding. 1
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
Cox is one of the nation's leading media and automotive services companies, with a presence in hundreds of large and small communities throughout the country. Founded as a
newspaper company in 1898, Cox’s operating subsidiaries today include Cox Communications,
Inc. (cable television, telephone, high-speed Internet, and other advanced broadband services)
(“CCI”);2 Cox Newspapers, Inc. (newspapers, local and national direct mail advertising and
1 Recommendations of the Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communications Networks, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, EB Docket No. 06-119, FCC 06-83 (released June 27, 2006) (the “NPRM”). 2 CCI is a multi-service broadband communications and entertainment company with more than 5.9 million total residential and commercial customers. The company offers both analog and advanced digital cable television services and an array of other communications and entertainment services, including residential local and long distance telephone (both circuit- switched and Voice over Internet Protocol) and high speed Internet access. In addition, CCI provides communications solutions for both large and small business customers, providing high- speed Internet, voice and long-distance services, as well as data and video transport services.
customized newsletters);3 Cox Television (television, television sales rep firms and research);4
and Cox Radio, Inc. (broadcast radio stations and interactive web sites).5 For many decades,
these companies have played a crucial role in informing Cox communities about emergencies of
all kinds – natural and man-made, large and small.6
Whether it provides cable, television, radio, telephone, broadband and/or newspaper
service to the communities it serves, Cox often is the source to which customers turn when they
need fast, accurate, and reliable information about an emergency, or when they need to reach out
to law enforcement or first responders. Indeed, prompt restoration of a Cox service often is necessary to give residents the tools they need to weather a disaster and its aftermath. With its diverse business holdings and long history of planning for and responding to emergencies in all parts of the country, Cox has a unique perspective on the challenges involved in providing communications services of all types in disaster areas, and on the useful role that government can play in helping companies maintain and restore services when disaster strikes. Cox, therefore,
______CCI is the nation’s fourth largest cable operator and the nation’s tenth largest telephone company, and provides service to hurricane-prone areas of Louisiana and Florida. 3 Cox Newspapers is one of the nation’s largest newspaper publishing enterprises. Founded in 1898 as the cornerstone of Cox Enterprises, Cox Newspapers now produces 17 dailies and 25 non-dailies in 9 states, including the hurricane-prone states of Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Total circulation for the company’s newspapers reaches 1.2 million each weekday and more than 1.6 million on Sundays. 4 Cox entered the television business in 1948 and now owns 14 television stations, including 2 stations in Orlando, Florida. 5 Cox Radio, Inc. (NYSE:CXR), which is a majority owned subsidiary of Cox, is one of the largest radio broadcasting companies in the United States. Upon consummation of all announced transactions, Cox Radio will own, operate or provide sales and marketing services to 80 stations in 18 markets. A majority of the company's stations are concentrated in the Sunbelt, including Gulf-region stations in Florida, Alabama, and Texas. 6 Cox also owns Manheim Auctions, Inc., which is the nation’s leading sponsor of vehicle auctions and provider of vehicle repair and certification services and web-based technology products. In addition, Cox holds an equity stake in a range of Internet businesses, including AutoTrader.com, the world's largest and most visited source of used vehicle listings for dealers and consumers.
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has an acute interest in helping the Commission ensure that implementation of the Katrina
Panel’s recommendations improves communications providers’ ability to withstand and recover
from emergencies, for the benefit of their employees, their customers and their communities.
As described below, Cox agrees with those commenters that have expressed support for
many of the Katrina Panel’s recommendations. The Panel identified a number of vital roles that
the Commission can play, including: (1) working with industry to establish voluntary guidelines
for disaster preparedness and the prepositioning of assets; (2) working with other federal, state,
and local agencies to guarantee that employees involved in communications infrastructure
restoration have ready access to disaster areas and whatever supplies are made available by government; (3) streamlining the STA and waiver process where necessary for service
restoration; and (4) working with other federal agencies to ensure that all coordination and
credentialing processes are clear to all communications providers both before and after a disaster
occurs.
Cox also files these reply comments to emphasize that the Commission should carry out
these roles without placing unnecessary regulatory burdens on industries that already spend a
great deal of time and resources planning for disaster recovery. Cox has worked with the
Commission on these issues in the past and will continue to do so in the future. The spirit that
has guided these efforts always has been one of cooperation between government and industry,
not one of adversarial regulation and enforcement. Nothing in the Katrina Panel’s Report nor the
opening comments suggests that the Commission should abandon this cooperative approach.
I. A STRONG PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IS CRITICAL TO EFFECTIVE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND DISASTER RECOVERY.
Cox applauds the Commission for its leadership in convening the Katrina Panel and its
exploration of ways that both the government and the private sector can improve the country’s
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emergency preparedness and disaster response. Cox was honored to have Greg Bicket, Vice
President and Region Manager of CCI’s New Orleans system, serve as the Panel’s cable industry representative. This unique opportunity enabled Mr. Bicket to share the cable industry’s experiences and “lessons learned” in the wake of last season’s devastating hurricanes, and to participate actively in the formulation of the Panel’s recommendations to the Commission. The
Katrina Panel is just the latest example of the Commission’s commendable ongoing efforts to facilitate a public/private partnership for disaster preparedness and recovery. Cox also has been a participating me mber in the Media Security and Reliability Council (“MSRC”), which the
Commission convened in the wake of the tragedies of 9/11 to assess the reliability of local media and information networks and to recommend best practices for ensuring continuation of service in disaster areas. Roswell Clark, Cox Radio’s Director of Technical Operations and Systems
Administrator, represents Cox in the MSRC’s Local Coordination Working Group. Cox expects the Commission’s implementation of the Katrina Panel’s recommendations will follow a similar collaborative path.
As the Katrina Panel’s deliberations and recommendations show, and as noted by many of the commenters in this proceeding, both the public and the private sectors must be intimately involved in disaster preparedness and response.7 Cox has responded to literally hundreds of emergencies over its 108-year history and has learned that private companies and individuals must engage actively in the planning and response process. Effective emergency preparedness requires more flexibility and company-specific planning than would be possible if companies
7 See, e.g., Comments of the National Association of Broadcasters at 5-8; Comments of Verizon at 2-5, 16, 17, 18, 19; Comments of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, Louisiana Cable & Telecommunications Association, and Mississippi Cable Telecommunications Association at 11-14.
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were forced into one-size-fits-all disaster regulations. By the same token, last year’s hurricane
season and the Katrina Panel’s findings show that governme nt has a critical role to play. This
role is not simply to marshal public resources to respond when a crisis occurs, but also
proactively to establish clear lines of responsibility and a coherent, comprehensive response plan
to ensure that critical activities are carefully coordinated with industry – and not left to unfold
haphazardly. As the Commission knows, the importance of restoring communications services to disaster areas cannot be overstated. Implementation of the Katrina Panel’s recommendations is the next important step the Commission can take to help ensure that communications service
providers like Cox have both the necessary support and the necessary flexibility to accomplish
that task in future disasters.
II. THE PRIVATE SECTOR MUST CONTINUE TO TAKE A LEADERSHIP ROLE IN PLANNING FOR AND RESPONDING TO EMERGENCIES.
Individual communications and media companies like Cox have the primary interest in,
and responsibility for, making certain that they are prepared to respond to natural and man-made
disasters. Cox takes its responsibility to maintain and restore service to its communities
extremely seriously. For more than a century, Cox has been actively involved in planning for,
and responding to, disasters across the country.
A. Cox’s Employees Are the Foundation of the Company’s Disaster Response.
Founded in 1898 as a newspaper company in Dayton, Ohio, by Governor James M. Cox,
Cox today has over 300 business locations and 80,000 employees nationwide. Governor Cox
understood the value of each employee and the integral role employees play in the success of
Cox; this belief continues today under the leadership of Governor Cox’s grandson, Jim Kennedy,
Cox’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In the context of disaster preparation and
response, the importance of Cox’s employees takes on an entirely new dimension. Simply
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stated, if Cox has not advised and prepared its employees to keep themselves safe and ready for
execution of the company’s disaster plans, then those plans cannot be executed. Because its
people are Cox’s most important asset, the company instructs its management and employees
first to take steps to protect themselves and their families in the event of an emergency. Once the company’s employees are safe and secure, Cox calls on them to execute the intricate disaster planning that has been designed for the company.
B. Cox Maintains a Company-Wide Commitment to Disaster Preparedness.
Cox has established a cross-functional disaster preparedness team that has formulated
detailed plans to help the company respond to emergencies large and small. All Cox businesses
are required to be continually designing and updating Business Continuity Plans that address all
phases of business recovery and service restoration in the wake of disasters. These sophisticated plans address all areas of crisis management, identifying potential emergencies based on their probability and risk level and outlining the strategies the businesses will employ should disaster strike. Where necessary, the plans identify training that managers and employees should receive to help them function in specific crisis situations. The plans include graphical checklists identifying action items and responsible managers broken down by critical departments and timelines.
For disasters like hurricanes or disease pandemics, which often are preceded by days or
weeks of warning, the plans include both pre-event and post-event action-item timelines. For
events that strike without warning, like earthquakes or terrorist attacks, the plans call for the
initiation of disaster recovery operations as soon as practicable after the event. The plans also
contain emergency communication procedures, and include the contact numbers for all critical
department managers, emergency agencies, corporate support contacts, and third-party vendors.
The Cox business continuity plan and those of its subsidiary businesses provide a comprehensive
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roadmap to mitigate risks and ensure rapid restoration to business functionality – and, ultimately,
of service to customers. The plans are updated on an ongoing basis, refined and tested to
integrate lessons learned and new technology.
C. Cox’s Business Continuity Plans Performed Exceptionally Well in the Aftermath of Last Year’s Hurricanes.
1. Cox’s Disaster Recovery Effort Led to the Quickest Possible Resumption of Service to Affected Areas.
Cox’s businesses followed their business continuity plans before, during, and after last
season’s devastating hurricanes, and in many key respects these plans fared extremely well in the face of an unprecedented challenge. Cox has a major business presence in the Gulf region with large cable and telecommunications systems in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and
Gainesville and Pensacola, Florida; two television stations in Orlando, Florida; and a total of 21 radio stations in Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville, Florida. In addition, Cox’s Manheim
Auto Auctions division has business locations in New Orleans, Slidell, and Scott, Louisiana,
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Pensacola, Florida, and Cox Newspapers has two dailies in Palm
Beach, Florida, and a weekly Spanish-language paper in West Palm Beach, Florida. Cox has faced natural disasters many times before – Hurricane Ivan sacked CCI’s Pensacola system in
20048 and both its southern and northern Virginia cable systems were ravaged by Hurricane
Isabel in 20039 – but with so many businesses located throughout the Gulf region, Cox was
particularly hard-hit last year by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.
8 As a result of Hurricane Ivan, CCI’s Pensacola-area system lost 14 miles of plant in Fort Walton Beach and 65.5 miles of fiber and 122 miles of coaxial cable in and around Pensacola. Though the damage was extensive, 80% of the plant was operational within two weeks of the storm’s September 16, 2006 landfall and service was restored to all customers still able to receive the service by mid-October. 9 In the aftermath of Isabel, 95% of Cox's 420,000 customers in Hampton Roads, Virginia lost service. One week later, Cox had restored service to 80% of its customers. In addition, 54% of
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Despite the catastrophe that Hurricane Katrina brought to New Orleans, Cox’s business continuity plans enabled the company to respond quickly and effectively to a disaster of unprecedented magnitude. Though the path of the storm remained uncertain, on
August 27, 2005, CCI triggered its disaster recovery response, suspending its New Orleans operations, encouraging employees to secure their homes and evacuate the area, and sending its
“Red Team” of about 150 administrative, plant maintenance, construction, and engineering employees to its system in Baton Rouge. Of course, Katrina caused significant damage to both
New Orleans and Baton Rouge, so Cox was required to stage its New Orleans recovery
operations from an area that was itself recovering from the storm. Indeed, in Baton Rouge, the
combination of storm damage and the influx of people evacuated from New Orleans strained
both CCI’s and the city’s resources. In the weeks following Katrina, members of the Red Team
worked with the Baton Rouge system employees to restore phone, high speed Internet and cable
service to its entire Baton Rouge service area, and to wire dozens of sites for emergency
organizations and shelters.
As Cox tackled the demands that the evacuation of New Orleans had placed on its
resources in Baton Rouge, it also set its sights on evaluating damage and restoring service to
New Orleans. Within days of the storm, members of the Red Team gained access to the city and
began the damage assessment. The story was grim. CCI’s administrative headquarters for the
New Orleans system was surrounded by three feet of water. The storm ruined several hundred
miles of coaxial cable, flooded many of CCI’s underground vaults, and severed its fiber
distribution system in many places. Katrina rendered uninhabitable over 200,000 homes passed
______CCI's 250,000 customers in Northern Virginia were left without service. Less than three weeks later, service was restored to 99% of those customers.
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by CCI’s system. Despite this extensive damage and although much of the city remained under water for more than a month after Katrina hit on August 30, Cox restored service to more than
60% of its New Orleans customers by the end of September – even though more than 1,200 CCI
New Orleans employees were directly impacted by the storm. Today Cox is serving about two-
thirds of the number of subscribers that it served before Katrina hit, despite the fact that the city’s
population has been halved and so many of the homes passed by the system now are uninhabited.
This record is a testament to CCI’s disaster preparedness and the heroic efforts of its New
Orleans and Baton Rouge employees.
Cox’s employees then matched these efforts again when Hurricane Rita blew through
CCI’s cable system in Lake Charles and Sulphur, Louisiana less than a month after Katrina
devastated New Orleans. CCI’s disaster planning again was put to the test, and again the
company’s management and employees met the challenge. A team of more than 200 Cox
employees and contractors from four states repaired more than 300 miles of distribution cable,
fiber, and drop lines; repaired more than 11,000 drops lines feeding service directly to homes;
staged 130 generators to power nodes for homes in neighborhoods without commercial power;
restored service to more than 60 fiber-optic nodes; reopened its Lake Charles customer service
center on the first day evacuees were permitted to return to the city; and completed more than 10
times the normal number of work orders in the days after the storm. Despite the widespread
damage to CCI’s Lake Charles plant and the extraordinary demands that were placed on Cox’s
resources in nearby Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Cox restored service to all who could
receive it within a month of Hurricane Rita’s arrival.
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2. Cox’s Businesses and Employees Throughout the Country Provided an Overwhelming Humanitarian Response to the Hurricane Crises.
The success of Cox’s business continuity plans and the strength of its business response
to last summer’s hurricanes is only part of the story. Cox is most proud of the humanitarian
response of its employees and customers to the havoc that the storms wreaked on millions of
lives in the Gulf Coast region. Immediately following the Katrina, correspondents from Cox’s
Newspapers were on the ground in New Orleans documenting the tragedy and bringing it home
to people throughout the country. Cox’s Atlanta television and radio stations WSB-TV and
WSB Radio partnered with the American Red Cross and Salvation Army to raise millions for
hurricane relief. Cox Radio Tampa Bay raised $210,000 from listeners. Cox Radio Birmingham
and Cox Radio Houston each held food and donation drives that raised nearly $60,000 dollars and sent much-needed food and water to the affected areas. Cox Radio Birmingham also partnered with local television stations on the “2 million dollars in 2 weeks” campaign that succeeded in reaching that ambitious goal. Other Cox television and radio stations from areas
remote to the tragedy, including WJAC-TV of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, KIRO-TV of Seattle,
Washington, and Cox Radio Tulsa, also promoted donation campaigns that raised additional
thousands of dollars for Katrina relief. WSOC-TV, Cox’s Charlotte station, and its viewers
pitched in by donating funds for school supplies for more than 300 displaced children.
Manheim’s many field locations donated thousands of dollars to disaster relief efforts.
At the corporate level, Cox donated $8 million in air time or space from CCI, Cox
Newspapers, Cox Television, and Cox Radio for advertising to help encourage viewers and
readers to continue their support for these areas’ long-term needs. In addition, the James M. Cox
Foundation of Georgia, Inc. donated $1,000,000 to the American Red Cross for disaster relief to
affected areas; $750,000 to the United Way to be used throughout the hurricane disaster areas;
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$150,000 to Habitat for Humanity to help communities begin to rebuild; and $100,000 to the
Boys and Girls Clubs for programming and continuing education for children in devastated communities.
Following the disaster, Cox employees also made donations to a 501(c)(3) organization established by Cox that is dedicated to helping Cox employees who were displaced by the storms. To date, employees have donated more than $1 million to the fund, which has been matched dollar for dollar by the James M. Cox Foundation of Georgia, Inc., and the fund has raised a total of more than $2.7 million. Cox is proud that its employees and customers showed so much generosity at a time when so many people had and continue to have so many needs.
D. Cox is Dedicated To Using Its Experience in Last Year’s Hurricanes To Strengthen It Future Disaster Responses.
Cox takes pride in its response to last year’s hurricanes, but it also has used its experience to refine its disaster planning and update its Business Continuity Plans. On an operational level,
Cox’s New Orleans and Baton Rouge systems have put together a list of over 500 lessons learned from last year’s disasters. These lessons range from the relatively small – like improving communications between Cox and its employees in disaster situations – to the large – like improving coordination between Cox and local and national government agencies in charge of post-disaster repair and relief. These lessons have guided CCI and Cox’s other businesses as they have refined their disaster preparedness plans.
Last year’s hurricane season also identified the importance of heightening employee disaster awareness and supporting employees in need when disasters occur. The company has developed several initiatives to respond to these lessons learned, including:
Ø CoxAlert.com – Cox recently launched an Internet website dedicated to keeping all the company’s employees, retirees, business partners and vendors informed during a disaster or crisis, and to helping employees make the necessary personal plans to weather any emergency. This valuable online tool offers convenient,
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timely access to critical emergency information in the event of a crisis or a disaster affecting a Cox company or location. It also contains a wealth of useful data to aid both professional and personal emergency planning for any conceivable natural or man-made disaster, including terrorism. CoxAlert.com regularly updates its content so that employees have the most current news and complete instructions on actions they should take during a crisis, and the website includes important contact numbers specific to each of Cox’s businesses.
Ø (877) COX-IMOK – After last summer’s hurricanes, locating and providing relief to employees was a challenging task. To help with this task in future disasters, Cox recently launched a corporate-wide, toll-free telephone number, providing all employees and retirees with one more way to receive up-to-the- minute, emergency information about a crisis that may impact them. It also provides another means to account for the safety of employees who evacuate or are displaced from an area where local communications systems are disrupted. The Cox I’m OK call center is staffed 24 hours a day by representatives from Cox Corporate Security.
Ø Avian Flu Pandemic Preparedness – In addition to tracking bird flu developments, Cox has begun proactively informing its employees and retirees about steps they can take in preparation for and during a pandemic. Cox has produced an employee guide distributed at the workplace, a family guide mailed to homes of employees and retirees and a managers’ guide with helpful tips on preparing employees and their businesses for a pandemic outbreak. The managers’ guide also includes tools and resources available in the event of a pandemic. Cox has implemented good hygiene programs in the workplace and developed plans for infectious disease control to help reduce the impact of any flu or other infectious disease outbreak.
By pursuing these initiatives, Cox Enterprises is ensuring that, when the next disaster comes, the company will have the best-prepared workforce possible for dealing with the disaster and restoring service to customers quickly and efficiently. Cox’s employees performed admirably in the last set of disasters; the company is seeking ways to help them perform that well again when disaster next strikes a Cox community.
III. THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA ARE PLAYING AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT ROLE IN DISASTER PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE -- AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES MUST RECOGNIZE THEIR GROWING IMPORTANCE TO POST-DISASTER RECOVERY.
One of the key policy lessons learned from last year’s hurricanes is that traditional electronic media companies such as broadcast stations and cable systems are playing an
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increasingly important role in getting their communities ready for and responding to disasters of
every size and type. For example, CCI has changed dramatically over the past decade and now
provides a full suite of critical communications services to residences and businesses, including
lifeline voice and E911 services, high-speed Internet access, EAS and other emergency alerts,
and a wide range of video programming services, including local broadcast signals, The Weather
Channel, and, in may of its markets, WeatherScan. WeatherScan is The Weather Channel’s 24-
hour all local digital channel, which includes highly localized information about weather, driving
conditions, tides and sea conditions, and airport delays. This service soon intends to enhance its
weather-related programming in disaster situations by adding information concerning traffic
conditions on contra-flow evacuation routes. This year CCI also intends to launch interactive functionality on WeatherScan that will enable viewers to choose among desired information topics rather than have to wait for that information to be provided. In an emergency, this would allow our customers to save precious time viewing only that local data most important to them.
All of these services provide essential connections between CCI’s customers and their
communities and restoration of these services must be given priority when public officials
respond to disasters and other emergencies. Indeed, Cox increasingly provides many telephone
and data services to first responders themselves, making it all the more imperative that cable be
fully included in government and industry disaster recovery planning and implementation
activities.
Cox television and radio stations – in addition to playing a critical role in the Emergency
Alert System – similarly have long served the public interest by providing real-time, round-the-
clock, high quality coverage of national, regional and local emergencies. In many crises, not
only does the public instinctively rely upon broadcast services, but emergency responders do as
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well to obtain valuable, detailed information about how a disaster is unfolding. In the wake of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, for example, hospitals and emergency room personnel relied almost exclusively on broadcasts from Cox station KTVU and other area stations to assess the volumes and types of casualties to expect.
Likewise, when Hurricane Charley hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in 2004, Cox Radio’s Tampa stations, by prearrangement, activated inland studios collocated with local Emergency
Operations Centers, successfully allowing government officials to be directly connected with radio broadcasters before, during, and after the storm. The ability of broadcasters to disseminate emergency messages immediately and extensively – and their dedication in doing so – means that both public officials and the public at large naturally turn to local stations for disaster preparedness and response information. Cox and other broadcasters proudly recognize their obligation to deliver uninterrupted public services throughout a crisis.
With the advent of digital technology, Cox broadcast stations are offering new services that provide viewers and listeners with enhanced opportunities to prepare for and respond to emergency situations, and stations will continue to make additional disaster-preparedness services available as evolving technology increases the possibilities. For example, the website of
Cox television station WFTV(TV) in Orlando, Florida prominently displays extensive and easy- to-follow pages dedicated to hurricane warning, tracking, and preparedness, and includes links to informational and governmental resources. All of these services – old and new – emphasize the importance of including broadcasters and cable systems as critical service providers in the government’s emergency response plans.
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IV. ADOPTING MANY OF THE KATRINA PANEL’S RECOMMENDATIONS WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE THE COUNTRY’S EMERGENCY PLANNING AND RESPONSE.
One of the key lessons that Cox learned from its disaster response to the hurricanes of
2005 is that while private companies like Cox must take the leading role in disaster planning and
recovery, they cannot execute these plans in a disaster area without close coordination with
government agencies that have themselves undertaken the painstaking task of ensuring that
government is ready to respond to crisis. During the Katrina disaster, Cox’s initial service
restoration efforts were hampered by a lack of access to New Orleans and the company’s
facilities. The great value of the Katrina Panel and its recommendations is that the process of
coordinating with the many federal, state, and local agencies that perform disaster response
functions now is more transparent to a larger number of critical service providers. Job one for
the Commission is to continue to encourage relationships between service providers and the
relevant state, local, and federal disaster response agencies. Cox supports the Katrina Panel’s
recommendations that seek to nurture the public/private disaster recovery partnership that has
emerged from last summer’s hurricanes.
A. The Commission Should Work With the Communications Industry To Develop Preparedness Guidelines, But Should Not Impose One-Size-Fits-All Requirements.
Cox agrees with the Katrina Panel and the commenters in this proceeding that the
Commission should continue to work with industry groups (through advisory committees or
otherwise) to establish disaster preparedness best practices, including such planning tools as a
Readiness Checklist and recommendations for strategies for prepositioning assets.10 But while the Commission indeed should place its emphasis on coordinating cooperation between
10 Katrina Panel Report at iii, 31.
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government and industry in developing disaster relief planning guidelines, Cox agrees with
NCTA and NAB that industry participation in these efforts should be voluntary and any guidelines should be advisory only. 11 No two disasters, no two communities, and no two companies are alike, so attempting to dictate disaster preparedness regulations based upon the
Katrina experience would be a mistake. Moreover, as the commenters demonstrate, communications businesses already are dedicated to creating comprehensive business continuity plans that can help ensure quick and efficient service restoration.12 Attempting to shoehorn these plans into a regulatory framework, therefore, likely would be counterproductive.
If, however, the Commission determines that regulations are necessary, the Commission should take several steps to ensure that they are appropriately tailored to ensure greater disaster preparedness without overburdening the day-to-day operations of communications companies.
First, the Commission should clearly and narrowly define any new requirements. For example, if the Commission decides it must require prepositioning of assets and resources for all companies, it should clarify with specificity the essential equipment that would need to be included in an emergency equipment cache. Second, the Commission should ensure that the costs of complying with any new requirements are reasonable. Because any disaster plan will need to be customized for each company, imposing expensive regulations only would reduce the flexibility companies have to plan their own disaster response based on their own needs. Third, the Commission should work to make certain that any government assistance given to help with compliance (e.g., a DHS or other government subsidy for the purchase of essential equipment) is
11 See NCTA Comments at 19-20; NAB Comments at 8. See also Verizon Comments at 12. 12 See, e.g., NCTA Comments at 16-19.
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made available to all communications companies on a pro-competitive basis. For example, the
Commission should advise any funding agencies that funding made available to traditional wireline telephone companies must be made equally available to competitive cable telephony providers. Fourth, the Commission should establish a process to ensure that any requirements are updated as technology changes, so that service providers are not required to continue to use old technologies if equally effective alternatives become available at lower cost.
B. Cox Supports the Katrina Panel’s Proposals Regarding Voluntary Waivers and Outage Reporting.
Cox also agrees with those commenters who support the Katrina Panel’s recommendation that the Commission should establish a system of automatic waivers to facilitate disaster recovery operations.13 To make these efforts effective, however, the Commission must clearly
articulate which waivers will be available for which services, and it must publicize the
procedures that service providers must follow to take advantage of the streamlined waiver
process. In addition, the FCC must ensure that there is a process in place for promptly returning
to their original provider any customers displaced from one provider to another on a temporary
basis through grant of a waiver.
Cox also agrees that the Commission should work with industry to develop outage and
other reporting requirements for all services in disaster areas.14 To ensure, however, that recovering industries are not overburdened by the need for superfluous reporting, the
Commission should keep reporting requirements limited to critical information that is specified pre-disaster. As a basic rule, providers should be required to submit their reports to a single
13 See NCTA Comments at 20-21; NAB Comments at 5. See also Katrina Panel Report at 32-33. 14 Katrina Panel Report at 33-34.
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point of contact and the frequency of required reports should take into consideration industry’s priority to spend most of its time and resources post-disaster to restoring service, not filling out reports. The Commission also must make certain that appropriate safeguards are in place to assure the confidentiality of outage data to avoid competitive harm. Cox agrees with NCTA that all of these issues would be best considered on a collaborative basis between the Commission and the reporting industries.15
C. The Commission Should Do All It Can To Improve Disaster-Preparedness Coordination Between Federal, State, and Local Government and the Communications Industry.
As described above and in the Katrina Panel’s Report, one of the most difficult parts of
Cox’s execution of its business continuity plans was its inability to gain access to its facilities for its repair crews and its lack of access to essential resources like fuel. Cox has spent much of this past year strengthening its ties to the state, local, and federal government agencies that coordinate disaster relief, but there are several concrete steps the Commission can take to help facilitate this process for the entire communications industry. For example, Cox supports the
Panel’s recommendation that the Commission should work with other federal entities (including
Congress) to ensure that cable and broadcasting personnel and their contractors are recognized as
Emergency Responders under the National Response Plan.16 Designation as an Emergency
Responder would allow service providers to be involved in government planning processes at all levels; to participate in local and regional emergency operation centers during emergencies; to gain timely access (through credentialing) to communications facilities in the wake of disasters; and to gain access to fuel and other supplies critical to recovery efforts.
15 NCTA Comments at 21. 16 Katrina Panel Report at 35.
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Broadcast stations, for example, have a limited capacity to store fuel for generators and vehicles, yet keeping stations on the air to cover emergencies as they unfold is critical. Given the essential role they play in collecting and disseminating information to the public, broadcasters also should be given priority for power, phone and Internet infrastructure restoration. Similarly, because so many viewers receive television – and increasingly their telephone and broadband service – through cable systems, it is also essential that cable operators receive the Emergency Responder designation so that they will be granted immediate access to their physical plant to begin repair and service restoration, and have the same priority access to available resources as other communications providers. If and when the Commission’s efforts to gain Emergency Responder status for communications companies is successful, the Commission should publicize the process by which service providers can be designated Emergency
Responders.
In addition, Cox supports the Panel’s recommendation that the Commission work with the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee to develop national credentialing standards for communications repair workers, and that it work with state and local disaster preparedness organizations to ensure that those credentials are locally recognized.17
This is an essential issue, and the Commission should work closely with the NSTAC and the states to ensure that credentialing is implemented quickly and in a consistent manner. As Cox’s experience during Katrina showed, attempting to credential workers in the middle of an emergency can result in delays of several days, during which access to infrastructure can be hindered and critical fuel supplies can be confiscated.
17 Id. at 34.
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Ideally, all credentialing would be complete before the next major disaster strikes, but at
the very least, the Commission should make this a priority issue until a program is established
and a plan is in place to ensure that all communications workers can gain access to their facilities
during the recovery process. Cox understands that there are legitimate concerns about potential
credential fraud, but these concerns can be ameliorated by ensuring that credentialing takes place
in advance of a disaster and by designing difficult-to-counterfeit identification badges or other
fraud-resistant credential materials.
Cox also supports the Panel’s recommendation that power restoration activities be
coordinated post-disaster with communications restoration. 18 The Commission should communicate with pole owners in the clearest terms to caution them about the wholesale cutting of attachees’ plant (which often transports E911 and other essential services and information),
and impose material penalties for flagrant abuse. As with so many other disaster preparedness
issues, the keys here are education and cooperation. There is no reason why communications
infrastructure repair crews cannot work alongside power companies to ensure that all services are
expeditiously restored. Cox agrees that the Commission should help create the atmosphere in
which this cooperation can take place.
At the federal agency level, Cox agrees with the Katrina Panel and the commenters who
argue that the Commission is in the best position to work with the National Communications
System to broaden membership in the National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications
(“NCC”) to include the different sectors of the communications industry. 19 Broadening the NCC
18 Id. at 36. 19 Id. at 36.
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membership will ensure that un- or under-represented segments of the industry have an
opportunity to influence NCC deliberations and participate in NCC initiatives and activities.
Although the proposal to publicize availability of GETS and TSP programs is laudable,20 promotion of those programs must be coordinated with industry to ensure that providers can absorb additional demands placed on their networks through increased participation in the programs. In particular, care must be taken to ensure that networks that have sustained damage are not overloaded by demand before recovery is fully underway.
D. Cox Supports the Implementation of Voluntary NRIC Best Practices for 911 and E911 Service Reliability.
Cox also agrees with those commenters who support the Katrina Panel’s recommendation that the Commission should encourage – but not require – the implementation of certain NRIC best practices designed to promote the reliability of 911 and E911 services.21 Cox agrees with
Verizon that the Commission should keep in mind that the NRIC best practices are purely
voluntary and are not amenable to Commission adoption as rules or standards. Cox understands
that a robust 911 and E911 system is the backbone of disaster relief efforts.22 At the same time, however, Cox cautions the Commission that the NRIC best practices were designed to be voluntary and were never intended to be mandated by government. Implementation of these practices, where appropriate, should be voluntary in coordination with public safety officials.
20 Id. 21 Id. at 39. 22 See Verizon Comments at 11.
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E. The Commission Should Use Its Ongoing EAS Proceeding To Improve Emergency Communications to the Public.
Cox fully supports the recommendation that the Commission educate state and local officials about the existing Emergency Alert System (“EAS”), its benefits, and how it can be utilized to protect the public in the event of emergencies. Cox firmly believes the fundamental effectiveness of EAS is dependent upon the extent to which governmental agencies have a clear understanding of both the availability of EAS and their own authority and responsibility for activating it. Accordingly, as the expert federal agency in communications, the Commission should develop a broad and clear delegation of responsibility to local, state, regional, and federal agencies and authorities for activating an alert to ensure that all emergency messages are transmitted as soon as possible. Cox also believes the Commission should require coordinated
EAS testing among these entities to avoid unnecessary service disruptions and public confusion about the system.
The Commission has available to it an open proceeding – its Review of the Emergency
Alert System23 – that would be an appropriate vehicle for addressing these issues and implementing these recommendations. In its Review, the Commission also is considering actions it should take to expedite the development of a more effective digital EAS. Cox urged the
Commission in that proceeding to focus on an ultimate goal of a data-centric digital alert system whose inherent flexibility and extensibility could powerfully ensure the delivery of effective emergency messages, including to non-English speaking persons and those with disabilities.
Cox also supported the adoption of the Common Alerting Protocol (“CAP”) as a data-centric
EAS messaging protocol that could be used not just in broadcast services but across various
23 Review of the Emergency Alert System, EB Docket No. 04-296, First Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FCC 05-191 (rel. Nov. 10, 2005).
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telecommunication networks. Such data-centricity more easily could allow policymakers to shape EAS and preserve the ability to make changes in the future. Furthermore, this type of flexibility is vital to the Commission’s EAS policymaking, where, as Cox well knows from its
experience in a variety of communications businesses, sweeping one-size-fits-all mandates are unlikely to be effective or successful. Accordingly, Cox believes the Commission can move expeditiously to implement these recommendations and facilitate the development of highly effective emergency communications to the public.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, Cox respectfully requests that the Commission take the opportunity occasioned by the Katrina Panel Report to expeditiously adopt the Panel’s recommendations described herein.
Respectfully submitted,
COX ENTERPRISES, INC.
/s/ Scott S. Patrick Alexandra M. Wilson Scott S. Patrick Vice President of Public Policy Jason E. Rademacher Cox Enterprises, Inc. 1225 19th Street, NW Its Attorneys Suite 450 Washington D.C. 20036-2458 DOW LOHNES PLLC 1200 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W. Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 776-2000 (phone) (202) 776-2222 (fax) August 21, 2006
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