Verizon, the nation’s largest wireless provider, recently agreed to pay a fine of $1,050,000 for an outage that occurred in December 2022. During this outage, hundreds of 911 calls made by Verizon customers in six states failed to connect, leading to the U.S. Treasury benefiting from the fine. The FCC announced this settlement on Tuesday after Verizon was charged with failing to deliver 911 calls in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee for one hour and 44 minutes.
The outage that caused the failed 911 calls was due to a flawed security policy update file experienced by Verizon on that day. In addition to paying the fine, Verizon has agreed to a compliance plan to ensure future compliance with FCC regulations regarding 911 calls.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel emphasized the importance of reliable 911 service and stated that it is crucial for emergency calls to go through without any issues. She highlighted the FCC’s commitment to ensuring reliable communication services for the public.
This incident marks the second time within two months that Verizon faced a similar issue with its network affecting 911 calls. Loyaan A. Egal, Chief of the Enforcement Bureau, expressed serious concern over potential violations of the Commission’s 911 rules and emphasized the importance of communication providers upholding their responsibilities in providing critical 911 services.
Considering that this was not the first time such an outage occurred due to a mistake by Verizon causing hundreds of unanswered 911 calls, some may feel that Verizon got off too easy with this settlement. Share your thoughts on this matter by leaving a comment below.
