RCRC has lent its support to Senate Bill 670, authored by Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg). SB 670 would require providers of telecommunication services to inform the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) of 911 service or emergency warning outages.
Under SB 670, occurrence of a service outage or any outage affecting emergency warning capabilities would require:
- Telecommunication providers that provide access to 911 service to notify CalOES;
- CalOES to notify affected local offices of emergency services or county sheriff;
- Telecommunication providers to notify CalOES within 60 minutes of the outage and provide a description of the estimated area affected, approximate number of customers affected, estimated time to repair the outage, and a contact person that can provide CalOES with further updates; and,
- Telecommunication providers to notify CalOES that restoration of service has occurred once the 911 service has been restored.
SB 670 would ensure that state and local offices of emergency services have the crucial information they need to address 911 service interruptions in a timely manner.
RCRC’s support letter can be accessed here. Currently, SB 670 awaits consideration in the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee. For more information, Tracy Rhine, RCRC Legislative Advocate, can be reached at (916) 447-4806 or trhine@rcrcnet.org.