Reliability of Commercial Service Providers for Critical Infrastructure Communications Still A Concern

Utilities and other critical infrastructure industries (CII) continue to have concerns about using commercial service providers to support their mission-critical, smart grid and other communications applications. Inreply comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proceeding on the reliability of communications networks, UTC re-iterated that the Commission should not force utilities to use commercial service providers; instead it should allow utilities the ability to choose between private internal networks and commercial service providers as appropriate. Moreover, UTC recommended that the FCC provide utilities with access to suitable auction-exempt spectrum to ensure the safe, efficient and reliable delivery of essential electric, gas and water services to the public at large.

The reply comments also addressed comments filed by commercial network service providers that deny that they face any problems with reliability and resiliency. UTC cited the comments filed by Texas utility Oncor that they "experienced operational problems several times when commercial wireline communications equipment has failed or lacked sufficient redundancy." While commercial providers claim to have achieved higher levels of reliability, UTC noted that these levels still fall short of utility requirements, especially in emergency situations as experienced during the recent Virginia earthquake or Hurricane Irene. For example, Oncor had problems with a "major" commercial service provider in 2010, which caused Oncor to lose its mobile data capabilities for an entire week. Oncor also stated that "commercial carriers will not, at present, entertain assignment of priority to electric operations or that they only suggest Wireless Priority Service (WPS) as a solution." Oncor added that their "experience with WPS is that it is unreliable in practice because utilities are only prioritized above the general public, with multiple levels of other users ranked above Oncor." UTC emphasized that utilities and other critical infrastructure will continue to rely on their own private internal networks for mission critical operations.