What is a mass service disruption?
Mass service disruptions (MSDs) are caused by circumstances beyond the control of the phone company, for example, damage to a phone company’s facilities caused by a third party, natural disasters or extreme weather conditions. In these situations, mass outages of phone services may occur and the phone company may be restricted in its connection and fault rectification activities. Phone companies are exempt from complying with the CSG for services affected by an MSD, or for areas that are affected by the need to move staff or equipment to an area affected by an MSD. When a phone company relies on an exemption from complying with the CSG, it must inform its customers by publishing a public notice in a newspaper and on a website on the Internet specifying the services affected and the range of phone numbers to which the exemption relates.
