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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
March 18, 2015 Neil Grace, 202-418-0506
E-mail: neil.grace@fcc.gov
VERIZON AGREES TO $3.4 MILLION SETTLEMENT TO RESOLVE 911 OUTAGE INVESTIGATION
Robust Compliance Plan Will Improve Reliability of Next-Generation 911 Service
* Washington, D.C. - Verizon has agreed to a $3.4 million settlement to resolve a Federal Communications Commission investigation into the company's failure to meet its emergency call obligations during a multistate 911 service outage last year. The investigation, led by the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, related to an April 2014 911 service outage that lasted for six hours and affected wireless consumers in nine California counties who were unable to reach emergency call centers during the outage.
* "Americans must have confidence that they will be able to reach 911 in an emergency," said Chairman Tom Wheeler. "We take seriously our obligation to ensure the nation's 911 systems function reliably. We will continue to work with providers to ensure that advances in 911 technologies lead to improved communications between citizens and first responders."
The April 2014 outage was part of a broader multistate 911 outage that affected over 11 million people and at least 83 emergency call centers in seven states. The Verizon portion of the outage affected 750,000 California residents who were unable to call 911 to reach a live operator at 13 emergency call centers in northern California.
As part of today's settlement, Verizon has agreed to adopt a robust compliance plan. The plan, developed in coordination with the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, requires Verizon to develop and implement appropriate risk management processes in the continued rollout of Next Generation 911 services. In particular, Verizon will:
* Identify risks that could result in disruptions to 911 service;
* Protect against such risks;
* Detect future 911 outages;
* Respond with remedial actions, including notification to affected emergency call centers; and
* Recover from such outages on a timely basis.
The Bureau's consent decree also requires Verizon to exercise improved oversight over its Next Generation 911 subcontractors, to maintain up to date contact information for emergency call centers, and to coordinate with emergency call centers to periodically review Verizon's outage notification procedures. Verizon will also pay a $3.4 million fine to resolve the investigation.
The Verizon Consent Decree is available at:
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-15-308A1.pdf [HYPERLINK: https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-15-101A1.pdf]
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau report on the April 2014 outage is available at: https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-330012A1.pdf
-FCC-