Four US carriers have agreed to pay a total of €6 million to resolve investigations into their respective compliance with emergency call reliability rules during network outages in September 2020.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said AT&T, Intrado, Lumen (known as CenturyLink during the outage) and Verizon had all violated its rules for making 911 calls, while some had failed. They also did not follow the proper process for notifying call centers. affected by the interruption.
The FCC requires carriers to notify authorities of any outage lasting more than half an hour.
FCC 911 Fines
Lumen will pay more than half of the total amount, spending €3.8 million, while Intrado will pay €1.75 million, AT&T €460,000 and Verizon €274,000. The FCC added that all will present new compliance plans along with their respective sanctions.
"Perhaps the most important phone call I've ever made is a call to 911," said Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the FCC. “Power outages on a sunny day can be particularly worrisome because they occur when the public and 911 call centers least expect them. It is essential that phone companies avoid these outages as much as possible and provide prompt and sufficient notification to 911 call centers when they occur. "
The FCC fined another US carrier, T-Mobile, €19.5 million in November for a 911 outage that lasted more than 12 hours and affected more than 20,000 calls in the summer of 2020.
Earlier this month, it emerged that some Android smartphones were unable to call 911 due to a bug with Microsoft Teams, an issue that has since been resolved.