In our current political climate, I often listen to people argue over this or that and wonder, “Do they realize they’re having two different arguments?” One is denouncing the price of tea in China while the other defends the historical significance of Chinese tea farming. Neither are wrong and in fact they may agree if they would just stop trying to defend their own point and listen to the other.

This occurred to me when I read that the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA (News - Alert)) has asked the FCC to defer a proposed ruling that would require wireless network outage updates during disaster events.

As a quick primer, the FCC (News - Alert) - charged with regulating, protecting and improving the public service of the nation’s various networks (sans Internet) - gathers information from complaints and research. After a period of discussion it issues a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, indicating that it’s considering adding regulations. The CTIA has filed to request that the FCC belay its current trajectory and issue a Notice of Inquiry, indicating that it is accepting input and research prior to a decision.

I understand the CTIA’s point. FCC regulations can be cumbersome and in an emergency like superstorm Sandy, gathering and issuing data reports on cell towers seems counterintuitive. The CTIA even states, “In service providers’ experience, consumers need information concerning wireless coverage in areas affected by natural disasters--i.e. they want to know where wireless service is available to them.” It believes the FCC is acting too fast, basing proposed rules on a panel recommendation that cell networks report information on the percentage of cell towers rendered inoperable during a disaster.

The CITA is right. After a tornado, nobody really cares that 46 percent of the local cell towers aren’t working, unless we also know how to get the services we need. Can we move to a nearby location and get service? Can we wait in a hold queue somehow to have our call taken? Can we throw our phone in the pond and have it covered by our service contract insurance?

But that’s what exactly what the FCC is trying to do – provide information within the public interest. I have to think that if CTIA participating networks really want to provide information that will best help consumers in an emergency, it won’t be slowed down by this ruling from the FCC. So you have to report the percentage of towers that are out, how about also reporting when you project they’ll be fixed? Or when backup and emergency cellular systems will arrive on site to ease the burden for the affected?

In the CTIA’s letter to the FCC, it goes on to say that current recommendations issued to the FCC “…also begs the more fundamental question of whether consumers already have information they need about service reliability – from their own experiences and a multiplicity of independent sources, such as Consumer Reports, PC Magazine, JD Power & Associates, RootMetrics, and others.” Well, yes, consumers do have a lot of information on the best cell networks, but in reality, most of it comes from friends and Twitter (News - Alert).

The letter goes on, “Nor does such data provide relevant information to consumers about the general reliability of individual providers’ networks and the quality of its practices. Rather, this data, standing alone, would merely present a snapshot in time of the condition of a provider’s network during a given high impact event that does not reflect critical factors such as[…] the reliability of the network during the overwhelming majority of time.” Huh. So the concern is really that data made available to the public will skew the long-term performance rating of the cell company? I have to think when a hurricane has just washed out your house nobody really cares about their cell networks’ long-term performance rating. We care that the company cares enough to keep us informed.

In reality I have to believe the FCC and the cellular companies both want to operate in the public interest and are just comparing apples to oranges. If not -- if the cell carriers really are just concerned about disaster data skewing their overall numbers -- then there is an entirely different conversation we need to be having.