The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau settled five investigations into communications providers’ compliance with the agency’s 9-1-1 reliability rules during network outages that occurred last year.

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To resolve the matters, each company — AT&T, CenturyLink (now Lumen Technologies), Intrado and Verizon— agreed to make a settlement payment and implement a compliance plan to ensure adherence to these 9-1-1 rules. The combined settlement payments total more than $6 million.

“The most important phone call you ever make may be a call to 9-1-1,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Sunny day outages can be especially troubling because they occur when the public and 9-1-1 call centers least expect it. It’s vital that phone companies prevent these outages wherever possible and provide prompt and sufficient notification to 9-1-1 call centers when they do occur. I thank the Enforcement Bureau and the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau for their work on these investigations.”

AT&T will pay a total of $460,000 to settle two investigations. First, a $160,000 settlement resolves an investigation into whether AT&T violated FCC rules in connection with failed 9-1-1 calls and the failure to timely notify potentially affected 9-1-1 call centers during a 9-1-1 outage on September 28, 2020. Second, for a separate outage that also occurred on September 28, 2020, AT&T will pay a $300,000 settlement, which will resolve an investigation in whether it violated FCC rules in connection with failed 9-1-1 calls and failure to deliver number and location information. Find AT&T’s consent decree here.

CenturyLink (now Lumen Technologies) will pay a $3.8 million settlement, resolving an investigation into whether it violated FCC rules in connection with the failure to transmit 9-1-1 calls and timely notify 9-1-1 call centers during an outage on September 28, 2020. Find the consent decree here.

Intrado will pay a $1.75 million settlement, resolving an investigation into whether it violated FCC rules in connection with an outage that affected the delivery of 9-1-1 calls on September 28, 2020, and to timely notify 9-1-1 call centers regarding the outage. Find the Intrado consent decree here.

Verizon will pay a $274,000 settlement, resolving an investigation into whether it violated FCC rules in connection with failed 9-1-1 calls during an outage on May 7, 2020. Find the Verizon consent decree here.

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