Sevana: Sprint, others fined $1.4M by FCC related to 911 calls

Friday, September 25, 2015

Sprint, others fined $1.4M by FCC related to 911 calls

FCC has fined service providers more than $40 million this year for 911 failures

Keeping up its aggressive penalization of carriers who fail to properly handle 911 traffic, the Federal Communications Commission on Sept. 24 fined Sprint, Hamilton Relay and InnoCaption a collective $1.4 million for failing to handle 911 calls from people with hearing problems.

The FCC said in a statement that the companies “were not only unable to relay 911 calls from Americans who are hard of hearing but were unaware of this issue until a commission investigation revealed the problem.”

People with hearing problems can use Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS) that allows a person to listen while also receiving text captioning of the conversation.

Sprint, Hamilton and InnoCaption did not support the service for up to 10 months, according to the FCC.

FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said, “All Americans must be able to reach 911 in an emergency. Today’s settlements reaffirm our commitment to ensure that the hard of hearing community has essential 911 service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not only are we fining these companies for failing to provide this vital services, but we are assuring that they provide it going forward.”

The service breakdown was noticed when FCC investigators placed test calls in 2014. The three companies agreed they violated FCC rules and adopted compliance plans.

Sprint will pay $1.175 million, Hamilton will pay $235,000 and InnoCaption will pay $25,000.

In just the past few months, the FCC has fined operators more than $40 million related to 911 issues.

The FCC has prioritized upgrades to the nationwide 911 system, including mandates for more accurate indoor locating technology.

In an August speech, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler pointed to the fines as evidence of the organization’s commitment to public safety.

“In the last 4 months, we have issued almost $40 million in penalties for outages that left millions of consumers unable to reach 911 for hours at a time. I cannot imagine a more harrowing experience than desperately needing to call 911 because a loved one needs medical attention, only to pick up the phone and hear … nothing. We won’t stand for it.”

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