AT&T Settles 911 Outage Investigation and Pays $950K Fine

AT&T will pay $950,000 and implement a three-year compliance plan to resolve an FCC Enforcement Bureau investigation of an Aug. 22, 2023, 911 outage affecting parts of Illinois, Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin, the FCC said Monday. The outage lasted an hour and 14 minutes and resulted in more than 400 failed 911 calls, the agency said. AT&T “violated FCC rules by failing to deliver 911 calls to, and failing to timely notify, 911 call centers in connection” to the outage, the FCC found. The FCC said the outage occurred during testing parts of the carrier’s 911 network. A contractor technician “inadvertently disabled a portion of the network, and AT&T’s system did not automatically adjust to accommodate the disabled portion of the network, resulting in the outage.” The testing wasn’t associated with planned maintenance and “did not undergo the stringent technical review that would have otherwise been conducted.” Service providers “have an obligation to transmit 911 calls and notify 911 call centers of outages in a timely manner,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: “Our rules are designed to protect the public and ensure that public safety officials can inform consumers of alternate ways to reach emergency services in the event of an outage.” AT&T understands “the importance of having critical access to 911,” a spokesperson said in an email: “We’ve resolved this matter and are committed to keeping our customers connected in times they need it most.”