(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Office” means the Office of Emergency Services.
(2) “Telecommunications service” has the same meaning as defined in Section 2892.1 of the Public Utilities Code, but does not include voice communication provided by a provider of satellite telephone service.
(b) (1) On or before July 1, 2020, the office, by regulation, shall adopt appropriate thresholds for determining whether a telecommunications service outage constitutes a community isolation outage based on the risks to public health and safety resulting from the outage.
(2) In adopting regulations pursuant to paragraph (1), the office shall comply with the rulemaking process in Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2, and issue, on or before January 1, 2020, the notice required by Section 11346.5.
(3) Notwithstanding any other law, the office may issue emergency regulations in accordance with the process in Section 11346.1 if necessary to meet the deadline in paragraph (1).
(c) Upon the adoption of regulations pursuant to subdivision (b), all providers of telecommunications service that provide access to 911 service shall notify the office whenever a community isolation outage occurs that limits their customers’ ability to make 911 calls or receive emergency notifications. The community isolation outage notification shall be provided within 60 minutes of discovery of the outage by the provider, and the office shall be responsible for notifying any applicable county office of emergency services, the sheriff of any county, and any public safety answering point affected by the outage. The community isolation outage notification to the office shall be by a medium specified by the office, and shall include the telecommunications service provider’s contact name and calling number and a description of the estimated area affected by the outage and the approximate communities, including cities, counties, and regions, affected by the outage. The telecommunications services provider shall also notify the office by a medium specified by the office of both of the following:
(1) The estimated time to repair the outage.
(2) When achieved, the restoration of service.
(d) The telecommunications service provider shall ensure that the calling number provided to the office with the community isolation outage notification is staffed by a contact person who shall be available to respond to inquiries about the outage at all times until the provider notifies the office that service has been restored.
(e) Except as provided in subdivision (c), the office shall keep community isolation outage notifications confidential and shall not disclose the contents of the notifications.
(Added by Stats. 2019, Ch. 412, Sec. 1. (SB 670) Effective October 2, 2019.)