The FCC has entered into a Consent Decree with Verizon Wireless, ending the investigation into whether Verizon violated FCC rules when it failed to deliver 911 calls during an outage in December 2022. Sections 9.4 and 9.10(b) of the FCC’s rules require telecommunications carriers and commercial mobile radio service providers to transmit 911 calls to a Public Safety Answering Point or to an appropriate local emergency authority. On December 21, 2022, Verizon experienced a network outage that affected wireless traffic in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The outage lasted nearly two hours, during which time Verizon failed to deliver hundreds of 911 calls.
The settlement closes the FCC’s investigation which began in April of 2023. Under the terms of the Consent Decree, Verizon must establish a compliance plan to ensure future compliance and pay a $1,050,000 civil penalty.
