988 Outage Reporting in NORS Effective February 15, 2024
988 Outage Reporting in NORS Effective February 15, 2024
Beginning, February 15, originating service providers and covered 988 service providers must report outages that potentially affect the 988 Lifeline to the Commission’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS).
The reporting obligations will hopefully improve the resiliency of the 988 Lifeline and help entities that provide life-saving crisis intervention services to people calling the 988 Lifeline receive timely and actionable information about 988 service outages.
Who Must Report
Covered 988 service providers and originating service providers are required to report outages. The Order defines “covered 988 service providers” as those providers that provide the 988 Lifeline with capabilities such as the ability to receive, process, or forward calls. Originating service providers include cable, satellite, wireless, wireline, and interconnected VoIP providers. These are the carriers of the people originating calls to 988.
What to Report
Covered and Originating Service Providers must report outages that affect at least 900,000 user-minutes and last at least 30 minutes duration.
Where to Report
In the Commission’s Network Outage Reporting System (NORS). A checkbox will be added to NORS to allow reporting providers to clearly indicate whether a reported outage potentially affects a 988 special facility.
Additional Reporting
The Report and Order also requires covered and originating service providers to notify specific 988 special facilities when an outage occurs that potentially affects the facility. The Commission will publish a document in the Federal Register announcing the effective date.
Numbering & Porting Essentials Service
Clients interested in further educating their staff on the new 988 Outage reporting requirements service providers must adhere to should consider subscribing to JSI’s Numbering & Porting Essentials service. The subscription includes breaking news alerts and six web-based education sessions designed to keep companies informed about 988 as well as numbering, porting, and robocall mitigation decisions and requirements that will impact their internal operations and customers. Please contact Bridget Alexander White with any questions or click the button below for more details and to subscribe.