OMB requires telecom preparedness

Regulation of Maintaining Telecommunication Services During a Crisis

Emergency planning should become a factor in all new federal agency telecommunications procurements, according to a recent Office of Management and Budget memo.

Contingency and continuity of operations plans for telecom services may include the use of redundant and physically separate entry points into federally owned or leased buildings, the memo states.

Each agency is also required to conduct a review of emergency telecom planning, due to OMB by Aug. 1.

Technically, under a law Congress passed last year, the review may be limited to only federally owned buildings, but the memo states that as a matter of executive branch policy, the review “should also include the agency’s activities in leased buildings as well as owned buildings.”

During the review, agencies also need to confirm that they comply with existing emergency planning guidance that requires at least consideration of “locating alternate operating facilities in areas where power, telecommunications and Internet grids would be distinct from those of the primary site,” the memo states.