New York Public Service Commission staff issued recommendations...

The report said staff will continue to participate in state and federal level proceedings intended to improve wireless service resiliency and redundancy and the reporting of outage information to better support emergency services and public communications during emergency events. The report said telecom companies staffed their recovery efforts “to the best of their abilities,” and it found no “specific company effort inadequate.” The report said staff will make a recommendation for telecom restoration crews to have improved access to affected areas. Wireless and cable carriers improved their outage reporting compared with Hurricane Irene, but staff said improvements were still necessary. Despite Sandy being forecast “well in advance,” staff said outreach and repeated discussion was required with some companies during the event to “obtain substantive and timely outage and restoration information.” This becomes especially important for wireless carriers “whose service is relied upon most by emergency responders and the public for communication during emergency events,” said the report. Companies are asked to review the recommendations and provide a written response, within 60 days in case 13-M-0025, on plans to implement the recommendations and provide the status of any other initiatives implemented from lessons learned following Sandy.