As Emergency Communications Month draws to a close, WaterISAC is sharing additional resources and guidance to help water and wastewater utilities enhance their emergency communications capabilities, which can facilitate staff communications in various disaster scenarios and strengthen a utility’s overall operational resilience.
During emergencies, maintaining open lines of communication is both challenging and a critical requirement for response efforts. CISA offers three Priority Telecommunications Services that enable essential personnel to communicate when networks are degraded or congested due to weather events, mass gatherings, cyberattacks, or events stemming from human error. These three resources are the Wireless Priority Service (WPS), the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS), and the Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP). GETS and WPS are offered at no charge, require no special equipment, and can work separately or together to achieve a call completion rate greater than 90%, even during emergencies.
WPS prioritizes calls when cellular networks are degraded or congested. GETS prioritizes calls when landline networks are degraded or congested, and they can be made from phones worldwide. The two services can even be used together on mobile phones in one convenient app called the PTS Dialer, which can be programmed to easily make a priority call. And TSP is a service that facilitates repair and installation of organizations’ critical voice and data circuits that have national security or emergency preparedness duties. To begin the enrollment process, visit https://www.cisa.gov/apply-pcs, and join CISA on April 30 for an informational webinar where presenters will walk you through everything you need to know about the GETs and WPS services and how to get your organization started. Read more at CISA.
WaterISAC also encourages its members to review these additional emergency communication resources, guidance, and technical assistance programs below.
Additional Emergency Communications Resources:
- CISA – Emergency Communications
- EPA – Water Utility Communication During Emergency Response
- CISA – Water Fact Sheet for Priority Telecommunications Services (PTS)
- CISA – Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program (ICTAP) Resources
- CISA – PACE Plan
- CISA – National Interoperability Field Operations Guide (NIFOG)
- CISA – Emergency Communications and Extreme Weather Factsheet
- CISA – Emerging Communications Technologies
- CISA – National Incident Management System (NIMS): Information and Communications Technology Functional Guidance
