FCC Streamlines Interference, Public Safety Complaint Process

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Have a carrier interference complaint? Now, instead of multiple places at the FCC to place that message, there’s one. The Enforcement Bureau (EB) this week launched a portal to handle all public safety and carrier interference complaints.

The new portal is meant for industry use. Interference complaints from public safety and enterprise service providers are not routinely filed with the Commission’s Consumer Complaint Center. Instead, most public safety interference complaints are made either directly to the closest EB field office or to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau’s Operations Center. Most enterprise service issues, like wireless carrier interference complaints, have been filed through the bureau’s Cellular Telephone Interference Complaint webpage.

On Monday, the agency streamlined the complaint process by introducing a single place where public safety and carriers can lodge their problems. To use the new intake portal, users should click on the “PSIX-ESIX Interference Complaints” link located on the Commission’s home page to be redirected to the Radio Frequency Service Interference Complaint Portal landing page. From there, individuals will be able to identify the type of complaint—public safety, enterprise, or consumer.  

Under the new system, those who are lodging a complaint will receive e-mail confirmation their message has been received and when the individual should receive an initial response from a field agent. Field offices will contact complainants raising high priority interference issues within one calendar day of filing with the FCC. For medium priority interference complaints, the field office will contact the complainant within two business days (and within five days for low-priority complaints.)

The Commission has historically encouraged industry licensees and public safety spectrum users and licensees to first exhaust their own efforts before submitting interference complaints to the agency. These efforts include, for example, using industry-specific interference reporting sites, such as those used by 800 MHz licensees. The new portal will prompt these stakeholders to first report interference problems through these mechanisms. When such interference issues cannot be resolved privately, the new portal will serve as a backstop.

October 9, 2019   

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