Specifically, Verizon ran afoul of the FCC rules regarding 911 call centers, or public-safety answering points. Regulations require service providers to notify the centers in the event of an outage, which a Verizon subcontractor failed to do in Northern California. A total of 62 emergency calls failed as a result.
In addition to the fine, Verizon has agreed to adopt a compliance plan to prevent future incidents from occurring. To start, it will improve its subcontractor oversight and coordination with emergency call centers.
This isn’t the first run-in Verizon’s had with the FCC concerning the reliability of 911 services on its network. In 2011, the FCC called Verizon out for more than 10,000 dropped calls to emergency services during a January 26 snowstorm in Boston.
In an e-mail to the carrier, then-FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security chief Jamie Barnett referred to the figure as “truly alarming,” and called on the network to perform a thorough investigation across its footprint.
