The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Enforcement Bureau (Bureau) has entered into separate consent decrees with CenturyLink, Inc. (CenturyLink) and Intrado Communications Inc. (Intrado Communications) which resolve the Bureau’s investigations into whether the companies fully complied with Part 4 of the FCC’s rules during a massive six-hour network outage that occurred April 9-10, 2014. The outage affected 83 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and resulted in a loss of 911 services for more than 11 million people in seven states – California, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington. It was caused by a software coding error that occurred in Intrado’s Emergency Call Management Center located in Englewood, Colorado. Pursuant to the terms of its Consent Decree, CenturyLink will implement a compliance plan designed to reduce the likelihood and impact of 911 failures, ensure reliable 911 call completion, and plan for and provide expeditious notification to PSAPs affected by 911 outages. Additionally, CenturyLink will pay a fine of $16 million. Intrado’s Consent Decree requires it to implement a similar compliance plan and pay a fine of $1.4 million.
