The Federal Communications Commission is to establish a new bureau for Public Safety and Homeland Security, said chairman Kevin Martin at last week’s monthly FCC meeting in Atlanta, Ga.

In an unprecedented move, the meeting was held at BellSouth headquarters in Atlanta, rather than at FCC offices in Washington, D.C., last week, so that commissioners could receive a briefing from BellSouth on hurricane recovery efforts.

The new Public Safety/Homeland Security Bureau will be responsible for coordinating public safety, national security, and disaster management activities within the FCC. It will have responsibility for issues including:

• Public Safety Communications, including 911 centers and first responders
• Priority Emergency Communications
• Alert and Warning of U.S. Citizens
• Continuity of Government Operations
• Disaster Management Coordination (i.e., infrastructure reporting and analysis in times of disaster)
• Disaster Management Outreach
• Communications Infrastructure Protection
• Network Reliability and Interoperability
• Network Security

The FCC also granted BellSouth a waiver to allow it to route calls across LATA boundaries and/or across state lines when necessary to avoid areas damaged by the hurricane. Normally calls routed across LATA boundaries must be carried by a telecommunications carrier authorized by the FCC to carry long distance calls.