FCC fines T-Mobile $17.5M for 911 outage

According to the FCC, its probe revealed that T-Mobile’s 911 network architecture could have had better safeguards that would have stopped the outages from taking place.

Back in mid-March, Verizon settled with the FCC over 911 service outages that happened in April of a year ago. “Communications providers that do not take necessary steps to ensure that Americans can call 911 will be held to account”. There were two nationwide T-Mobile outages on August 8, 2014, during which time numerous mobile carrier’s then 50 million subscribers were unable to reach first responders.

Federal regulators are slapping T-Mobile with a $17.5 million fine after two 911 outages previous year likely kept thousands of consumers from reaching emergency services in their most dire time of need.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement that ensuring customers can reach public safety is one of hte Commission’s top priorities.

Moreover, T-Mobile failed to follow FCC guidelines requiring carriers to notify customers about such failures.

During that outage, emergency workers missed 6,600 calls to 911, reporting urgent situations including “domestic violence, assault, motor vehicle accidents, a heart attack, an overdose, and an intruder breaking into a residence”, the FCC said in its enforcement announcement.

In response to the issue, T-Mobile has said through a spokesperson that it has “made significant changes and improvements” since 2014, and that it will keep working on improvements.

“The safety of our customers is extremely important and we take the responsibility to provide reliable 911 service very seriously…”

Mobile plane carrier T-Moble often pay track ok of Dollars 17.ten mil for the 911 outage, because buyers couldn’t achieve the urgent connection for as little as 3 several hours.

In addition to paying the fine, T-Mobile is obliged to identify and protect against flaws in its operations that could lead to future outages.

A T-Mobile spokeswoman said that they faced a glitch during a software update, and they have already improved their system after the outage.