# Presentation: 352699

## TELECOMMUNICATIONS

**SERVICE PRIORITY (TSP)**

- Presenter: Ms. Deborah Bea
- (NCS)

- October 14, 2004

## About TSP

** ****The TSP Program ensures **_**priority**_** treatment for**
**   ****the Nation's most important telecommunication**
**   ****services, services supporting national security or**
**   ****emergency preparedness (NS/EP) missions.**
** ****NS/EP services are the services used**
-  to maintain a state of readiness
-  to respond to and manage any event or crisis (local,
-   national, or international) which causes or could cause
-  injury or harm to the population
-  damage to or loss of property
-  degradation or threat to the NS/EP posture of
-    the United States.

**2**

## Legal Background

**On November 17, 1988, the FCC issued a Report and Order  (FCC 88-341) establishing the TSP Program as the regulatory, administrative, and operational framework for priority provisioning and restoration of qualified NS/EP telecommunications services.**
**The TSP Program was created as an amendment to Part 64 of the  FCC's Rules and Regulations (Title 47 CFR).**
**The FCC designated the Executive Office of the President (EOP) as administrator of the TSP Program.  The EOP delegated its responsibilities to the Manager of the National Communications System (NCS), which, in turn, assigned the administration and execution of the TSP Program to the Office of Priority Telecommunications (OPT) located at the NCS.**

**3**

## Who Qualifies for TSP? 

**	****Organizations with telecommunications services that support either a *****national security***** or *****emergency preparedness***** mission**

** ****Federal users**
** ****Non-Federal users (via Federal sponsor)**
** ****State & local government (state EOCs, police, fire, EMS)**
** ****Foreign governments, within U.S. jurisdiction (embassy)**
** ****Private Industry (power / gas utilities, hospitals, etc.)**

**4**

## What are NS/EP 

- 	 NS/EP posture of the United States.

**What are NS/EP **
**Telecommunications Services?**

**5**

## TSP Categories  

**National Security Leadership**** **
**	****Presidential communications service critical to COG & national leadership during crises and Intelligence warning of catastrophic attack**
**National Security Posture & U.S. Population Attack Warning**
**	****Services essential to optimum defense, diplomatic, or continuity of government postures before, during, and after crisis situations including Federal, State, and local governments, and national space operations**
**Public Health, Safety and Maintenance of Law and Order**
**	****Services necessary for giving civil alert, maintaining law and order and the health and safety of the U.S. population**
**Public Welfare and Maintenance of the National Economic Posture**
**	****Services necessary for maintaining the public welfare and national economic posture during any national or regional emergency**

**6**

## TSP Components 

**	****The TSP program contains two primary and distinctive components:**

**7**

## What is TSP Restoration?

***Restoration*** means the repair or returning to service of telecommunications services that have experienced a service outage or are unusable for any reason.
- Priority ***restoration*** is applied to new or existing telecommunications services to ensure restoration before any other services.
- TSP** *****restoration*** priorities must be requested and assigned ***before*** a service outage occurs.

**8**

## Who is a Sponsor? 

- All non-Federal users who request a TSP provisioning or                                                     restoration assignment are required to have a Federal agency sponsor their request.
- A sponsor can be any Federal agency with which a non-Federal user may be affiliated, as specified in Executive Order 12656, “Assignment of Emergency Preparedness Responsibilities,” dated November 18, 1988.
**The primary roles of a Federal sponsor are to:**
- Review and determine whether to approve foreign, State, and local government and private industry requests for priority actions.
- Affirm that the requested priority level assignment is appropriate.

*A Federal sponsor does not incur financial liability for the sponsored service.*

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## TSP System Flow

**User**

**Order **
**Processing**

**Provisioning**

**OPT**

**LEC**

**ASR(s)**
** ****with TSP**
**Code**

**TSP Confirmation**
**Automated Process**

**TSP Request**

**Authorized** **TSP Code**

**Service request**
** ****with TSP**
**Code**

**TSP Code**

## What is TSP Provisioning?

- A key feature of the TSP Program is that users can obtain ***provisioning priority*** from service vendors  for the installation of new NS/EP services
- A ***provisioning priority*** authorizes the service vendor to take steps to provide the service earlier than the vendor’s normal business procedures would allow

**11**

## How Does TSP Provisioning Work?

**Office of**
**Priority**
**Telecommunications**

- Authorized Invocation
- Official
- Approves Funding*

- Issues TSP
- Authorization Code

**FECC Coordinates**
**TSP Provisioning request**

**Identify new **
**circuit requirements**

**FECC**

**Service Provider**

**DISASTER AREA**

******* ****Innovation Officials have the authority to approve the cost and criticality of a TSP provisioning request**

**Service User**

**12**

## Who is an Invocation Official? 

- An invocation official is a designated individual with the authority and responsibility to approve the cost and criticality of the provisioning request of a telecommunications service.

-   Certify that the NS/EP telecom service is so vital that it must be
-      expeditiously provisioned.
-   Delegate authority to approve provisioning requests and authorize
-      the expenditure of funds to other appropriate individuals within their
-      agency or organization.
-   Identify delegates in writing to the OPT.

_**The primary roles of an invocation official are to:**_

_**Who can be designated as an Invocation Official?**_

-   The head or director of a Federal department or agency
-   Commander of a unified or specified military command
-   Chief of a military service
-   Commander of a major military command
-   State Governors

**13**

## What are TSP ServiceVendor Responsibilities? 

**What are TSP Service****Vendor Responsibilities?**** **

- After a qualified NS/EP user receives a TSP assignment from the OPT, the user forwards the TSP Authorization Code to a service vendor in a service order.  The vendor provides TSP service only after receipt of a TSP Authorization Code from the user.
**The vendor then:**
- Provides the circuit ID to the OPT in a vendor confirmation
- Ensures TSP System priorities supersede any other telecommunications priority
- Restores existing services before provisioning new TSP services
- Provides the provisioning and/or restoration priority level assigned to a service to subcontractors and interconnecting carriers
- Participates in the annual reconciliation of TSP information at the request of the OPT
- Completes reconciliation of TSP information with all subcontractors every three years

**14**

## TSP Authorization Code

- The TSP Authorization code has two parts: (1) the TSP control identifier(ID), and alphanumeric identifier (2) the TSP priority levels that identify provisioning and restoration priority levels assignments. The TSP control ID occupies position 1 through 9 of the TSP Authorization Code.  The 10th position is always a hyphen, which separates the TSP control ID from the TSP Priority Levels. **Note: The letters I, O, S, and Z are never used in the TSP Code.**
- The TSP Priority Levels occupy positions 11 and 12 of the TSP Authorization Code.  Acceptable values for both provisioning and restoration include the following:
-   For the provisioning priority field, E, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 0 (zero) is acceptable.  A zero indicates that no provisioning priority is assigned.
-  For the restoration priority field, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 0 (zero) is acceptable.  A zero indicates that no restoration priority is assigned.
-  00 in both priority fields signifies that the code has been Revoked by the FCC

## What is the Sequence for Priority Services? 

- In resolving conflicts, the Executive Office of the President requires that restoration and provisioning of TSP services follow this sequence.
- 1. Restore TSP services assigned restoration priority 1.
- 2. Provision Emergency TSP assigned provisioning priority E.
- 3. Restore TSP Services assigned restoration priority 2, 3, 4,
-     or 5.
- 4. Provision TSP Services assigned provisioning priority 1, 2,
-     3, 4, or 5.

**16**

## How Do Vendors Respond to Emergency TSP Provisionings?  

***  *****EMERGENCY**

- When service vendors receive an E provisioning priority, they will take immediate action and allocate the resources necessary to provide the service as soon as possible
- If a vendor receives more than one E TSP request from different users, the vendor will provision them in order of receipt

**17**

## How Do Vendors Respond toEssential TSP Provisionings? 

- When service vendors receive an essential provisioning priority, they will make their best effort to provision the service by the requested due dates.
- Service vendors will provision essential TSP services, which are assigned the same provisioning priority and the same service due date, in the order in which they received the requests.

***  *****ESSENTIAL**

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## TSP provides service vendors with a FCC mandate for prioritizing services that are critical to NS/EP
TSP is a critical tool for emergency response and recovery efforts
TSP provisioning might be the only means of installing new services in a time of crisis
TSP restoration enables the NS/EP community to have telecommunications services restored prior to other services

- TSP is a critical tool for emergency response and recovery efforts
- TSP provisioning might be the only means of installing new services in a time of crisis
- TSP restoration enables the NS/EP community to have telecommunications services restored prior to other services

**Why Should I Use TSP?**

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## TSP Web Site

**http://tsp.ncs.gov**

**20**

## Contact Information

_**TELEPHONE:**_
**Business hours (8 a.m. to  **
**4 p.m.) or after hours :**
**1-866-NCS-CALL**
**(1-866-627-2255)****	**

_**FACSIMILE:**_
**Unclassified:**
**(703) 607-4937**
**Call the OPT to obtain classified facsimile information**

_**WEBSITE:**_
**http://tsp.ncs.gov**** **
** **_**E-MAIL:**_
**tsp@ncs.gov**

_**MAILING ADDRESS**_**:**
**Office of the Manager, **
**National Communications System**
**ATTN:  Office of Priority **
**             ****Telecommunications (OPT)**
**PO Box 4502**
**Arlington, VA  22204-4502**

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