T-Mobile Reaches Settlement With FCC Over 911 Outages

Back in mid-March, Verizon settled with the FCC over 911 service outages that happened in April of last year. Verizon wasn't the only wireless carrier that was swept up into some 911 outages, however, and now T-Mobile has followed in the carrier's footsteps with its own FCC settlement. The big difference, though, is how much it will pay to settle the matter. While Verizon settled for $3.4 million, T-Mobile will be paying $17.5 million to settle the legal matter.

This is the largest fine thus far issued by the Federal Communications Commission. According to the FCC, its probe revealed that T-Mobile's 911 network architecture could have had better safeguards that would have stopped the outages from taking place.

Furthermore, and as with Verizon, the wireless carrier is said to have failed to alert 911 call centers about the outage in what the commission considers a "timely manner". This issue revolves around outages that took place on August 8, covered most of the carrier's subscribers, and lasted approximately three hours.

In response to the issue, T-Mobile has said through a spokesperson that it has "made significant changes and improvements" since 2014, and that it will keep working on improvements. There's also a new compliance program in place as part of the settlement, according to the FCC.

SOURCE: Reuters