WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Enforcement Bureau has agreed to a settlement that resolves its FCC investigation into whether Verizon Wireless violated Commission rules by failing to deliver 911 calls during an outage in December 2022 in six southern states.
Customers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee were unable to reach emergency services when dialing 911 on December 21, 2022, with an outage lasting 104 minutes. It prevented hundreds of emergency calls from being completed through the Verizon network, as Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) traffic in six states was impacted.
To settle the matter, the Enforcement Bureau and Verizon Wireless entered into a Consent Decree that requires the company to implement a compliance plan and pay a $1.05 million civil penalty. “When you call 911 in an emergency, it’s critical that your call goes through,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Today’s action is part of the FCC’s ongoing effort to ensure that the public has reliable communications, including access to 911.”
FCC rules require wireless service providers to transmit all 911 calls to 911 call centers. The December 2022 outage was similar to one that Verizon Wireless experienced just two months earlier. After the October 2022 outage, Verizon Wireless took action to protect against further similar outages, but certain failures recurred, resulting in the December outage.
“ Sunny day outages, as occurred here, can be especially troubling because they occur when the public and 911 call centers least expect it,” said Loyaan A. Egal, Chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “We are committed to ensuring communications providers uphold their responsibilities in providing critical 911 services to the American public.”
