Sec. 202.2  Criteria and guidance.

    NS/EP planning in government and industry with respect to effective 
conservation and use of surviving telecommunications resources in a 
disaster, emergency or postattack period must provide for orderly and 
uninhibited restoration of services by the carriers and authoritative 
control of services allocation which will assure that priority will be 
afforded the most critical needs of government and the private sector 
with respect to these objectives.
    (a) The preservation of the integrity of characteristics and 
capabilities of the Nation's telecommunications systems and networks 
during wartime or non-wartime emergencies is of the utmost importance. 
This can best be accomplished by centralized policy development, 
planning, and broad direction. Detailed operations management will 
remain decentralized in order to retain flexibility in the use of 
individual systems in responding to the needs of national security, 
survival and recovery. Each Federal agency responsible for 
telecommunications systems operations, and the carriers, are responsible 
for planning with respect to emergency operations. Guidance in this 
matter has been issued from a number of sources and contained in:
    (1) Annex C-XI (Telecommunications), Federal Emergency Plan D 
(Classified).
    (2) National Plan for Telecommunications Support in Non-wartime 
Emergencies.
    (3) The National Communications System Management Plan for Annex

C-XI (Telecommunications) Federal Emergency Plan D (Classified).
    (b) The continuity of essential communications services will be 
maintained through the use of controls and operational procedures to 
assure that priority is given to vital services. NS/EP 
telecommunications services entail policies, procedures and 
responsibilities as described in parts 211 and 213 of this chapter.
    (c) The Nation's telecommunications systems facilities are 
vulnerable to physical and radiological damage. Planning factors with 
respect to the resumption of services in a disaster or postattack period 
must consider the probable loss of facilities which formerly provided 
direct and/or alternate intercity services among surviving population 
centers. Since surviving areas and population centers would serve as the 
sources of support to crippled areas of the Nation, the resumption of 
services between and among surviving metropolitan areas will be a high 
priority with the carriers.