Verizon will pay a $1 million fine to settle a 911 outage investigation

Verizon has agreed to pay a $1.05 million penalty to settle a Federal Communications Commission investigation into whether the company broke the agency's rules after a 911 outage. Over a period of one hour and 44 minutes in December 2022, the outage prevented hundreds of emergency calls from going through in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, the FCC said.

The agency added that the outage was akin to one that occurred two months earlier. Although Verizon carried out mitigation efforts to help prevent similar outages to the one in October 2022, "certain failures recurred," according to the FCC. As part of the settlement, Verizon has committed to implementing a compliance plan to make sure it abides by the FCC's 911 rules and to adhere to best practices, which include risk assessments and security-related measures.

“When you call 911 in an emergency, it’s critical that your call goes through,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Today’s action is part of the FCC’s ongoing effort to ensure that the public has reliable communications, including access to 911.”