Verizon Fined for 911 Call Outage

July 15 2024 – Verizon Wireless will pay over $1 million to settle a Federal Communications Commission investigation into 911 call outages that affected six states in December 2022. 

The Enforcement Bureau and Verizon Wireless reached an agreement on June 25 that mandates Verizon Wireless to pay a $1.05 million civil penalty and implement a compliance plan designed to ensure future compliance with FCC 911 rules and implement risk assessments and enhanced processes for implementing security policy updates.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said “when you call 911 in an emergency, it’s critical that your call goes through.” This event reflects “the FCC’s ongoing effort to ensure that the public has reliable communications, including access to 911”

In 2022, the FCC found that Verizon violated rules by failing to deliver 911 calls during the outage, which lasted almost two hours and impacted hundreds of calls in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

FCC rules mandate wireless service providers to transmit all 911 calls to emergency call centers. The outage occurred when operating procedures were not followed. 

Verizon Wireless experienced a similar outage in October 2022. Although the company implemented preventative measures after that incident, these efforts failed, resulting in the December outage.