T-Mobile has settled with the FCC regarding two separate 911 outages on its national wireless network that prevented customers from reaching emergency services for a period of three hours.
T-Mobile agreed to pay the FCC $17.5 million in fines and take steps to improve the strength of its network and 911 services. The company will follow an action plan to prevent or minimize the impact of similar outages in the future.
For example, it will identify risks that could result in disruptions to 911 service, protect against such risks, respond with remedial actions, and recover from such outages swiftly.
“The Commission has no higher priority than ensuring the reliability and resilience of our nation’s communications networks so that consumers can reach public safety in their time of need,” said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. “Communications providers that do not take necessary steps to ensure that Americans can call 911 will be held to account.”
T-Mobile’s competitors, including Verizon Wireless, have settled similar complaints with the FCC.
