I used to have great respect for the Federal Communications Commission when their prime mission had little or nothing to do with politics and everything to do with broadcast standards, frequency allocation and deviation monitoring, equipment certifications, and the licensing of broadcasters and amateurs.

Now, I think that the FCC has become hyperpoliticalized and is more subservient to the lobbyists who payoff politicians to obtain administrative favors for their industry and individual common carriers.

So I am more than a little upset to find out that cellphone companies have resisted regulations requiring emergency procedures and standards. At a time when people are adopting wireless solutions and giving up their telephone company landlines in favor of cellphones, such disregard for the public’s welfare is both shocking and unconscionable.

As reported by investigative journalists at ProPublica …

How Cellphone Companies Have Resisted Rules for Disasters

In a natural disaster or other emergency, one of the first things you're likely to reach for is your cellphone. Landlines are disappearing. More than 30 percent of American households now rely exclusively on cellphones.

Despite that, cell carriers have successfully pushed back against rules on what they have to do in a disaster. The carriers instead insist that emergency standards should be voluntary, an approach the Federal Communications Commission has gone along with.

After Hurricane Katrina, for instance, carriers successfully opposed a federal rule that would have required them to have 24-hours of backup power on cell towers. In another instance, an FCC program to track crucial information during an emergency — such as which areas are down and the status of efforts to bring the network back — remains entirely voluntary. Nor is the information collected made public.

The emergency issue has been part of a trend in deregulation of the telecommunications industry. Since 2010, more than 20 states have passed laws limiting their regulation of telecoms. <Source: How Cellphone Companies Have Resisted Rules for Disasters – ProPublica>

Bottom line …

Considering that even first responders are relying more on cellphones, it appears that the Obama Administration’s zeal for new taxes, rules and regulations do not extend to those thinks which actually make our world safer and more secure – the add to the corruption and insecurity found in disaster areas.

The 9/11 terrorist attack gave us the Department of Homeland Defense to coordinate federal efforts and to eliminate information stovepipes and jurisdictional disputes. Hurricane Katrina gave us another look at how FEMA coordinates and provides disaster relief. And it has been a major failure. We found that although FEMA knew about Hurricane Sandy days before landfall, it did little or nothing to pre-position critical supplies. The Inspector General found that most people with interagency radio frequencies did not have operable equipment, know the interagency frequencies or how to use the radios.

It is time that the public be re-engaged in demanding that the government quit playing politics and start serving “We the People.” Eliminating political programs that do nothing except fund the special interests and are ineffective in combatting emergencies.

Not one terrorist has been found by TSA although Billions of dollars have been spent creating another unionized government bureaucracy with ridiculous rules and even more oppressive personnel who are little more than jumped-up security guards flexing the power that would be denied them in non-TSA jobs. They are far from the elite defenders against terrorism used in Israel. In fact most of them might be hard-pressed to run 100 yards except to the “break room.” It is all Kabuki Theatre – reacting to past threats instead of meeting new ones.

Want to help. Tell your elected officials you want the cellphone carriers to implement emergency rules and regulations to protect the public or lose their licenses. After all, people complain to the FCC everyday about television content – how about complaining about something worthwhile.

-- steve