For Immediate Release
ATIS
1200 G Street, NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005
Contact: Marcella Wolfe
Phone: 202-434-8851
E-mail: mwolfe@atis.org
www.atis.org
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For Immediate Release |
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ATIS |
Contact: Marcella Wolfe |
As Hurricane Season Begins Telecom Service Providers Eye Checklist Developed By ATIS Network Reliability Steering Committee
Washington – June 1 marked the official beginning of hurricane season and telecommunications service providers are preparing their equipment, facilities and manpower with guidance from the NRSC Hurricane Checklist developed by the ATIS Network Reliability Steering Committee (NRSC). The document addresses a broad range of preparedness efforts, to include advance monitoring of storm paths, and physical planning for vehicles, equipment, power and fuel supplies. The NRSC Hurricane Checklist is available for download at http://www.atis.org/nrsc/docs.asp.
The Checklist is important for the industry in 2007, as reports have called for a very active Atlantic basin hurricane season this year in which landfall probabilities for the United States coastline are well above their long-period averages.
“Recent years’ natural disasters had an unprecedented impact on the telecommunications infrastructure, but provided a wealth of lessons that NRSC has captured as a learning tool. The NRSC Checklist helps all service providers, large and small, gauge their readiness for predictable natural disasters, support the safety of their crews, and recover services to their customers,” said Susan M. Miller, president and CEO of ATIS. “Service providers across the country can apply these lessons—not just those in hurricane-prone areas.”ATIS has filed the NRSC Hurricane Checklist as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s open docket regarding the recommendations of the independent panel reviewing the impact of hurricane Katrina on communications networks (EB Docket No. 06-119). The development of voluntary industry checklists was one of the issues ATIS has supported, advocating the industry-led development of such lists.
The ATIS NRSC is a consensus-based industry committee that analyzes the communications industry's reporting of network outages, makes recommendations aimed at improving network reliability, and distributes the results of its findings to industry. Current company participants in the NRSC include: AT&T, Cox Communications, EMBARQ, Juniper Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, NTT MCL, Qwest, Sprint, Telcordia Technologies and Verizon. The National Communications System (NCS), a U.S. government agency, is also an active member of the ATIS NRSC.
ATIS is a leading standards development and technical planning organization committed to rapidly developing and promoting technical and operations standards for the communications and related information technologies industry worldwide using a pragmatic, flexible and open approach. Participants from more than 300 communications companies are active in ATIS’ 22 industry committees, Incubator Solutions Program, and other activities. www.atis.org