Fergie's Tech Blog

FCC: IP Vital For Emergency Communications

Roy Mark writes in internetnews.com:

With Hurricane Rita promising a reprise of the communications collapse during Hurricane Katrina earlier this month, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin told lawmakers Thursday the Internet must become a vital part of the nation's emergency response system.

According to the FCC, Katrina knocked down more than 3 million customer telephone lines in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. More than 20 million telephone calls did not go through the day after Katrina. Local wireless networks fared no better with more than 1,000 cell sites out of service.

Even if calls had been able to get through, first responders were hamstrung by the fact that thirty-eight 911 call centers went down.

"We should take full advantage of IP-based technologies to enhance the resiliency of a traditional communications network," Martin told a Senate panel. "IP technology provides the dynamic capability to change and reroute telecommunications traffic within the traditional network."

posted by Fergie @ 9/23/2005 11:41:00 AM