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Charter Communications will pay $15 million to settle an investigation into multiple network outages that occurred last year, the Federal Communications Commission said in an announcement shared first with Tech Brew.
As part of the settlement, Charter acknowledged violating the FCC’s rules, including one instance of failure to notify more than 1,000 emergency call centers of a disruption that affected 911 calls last year, the agency said.
Communications providers are obligated to notify 911 call centers when network outages lasting longer than a half-hour might affect those centers. They must also make timely regulatory filings to the FCC “when outages reach a certain severity threshold.” Under the settlement, Charter admits that it violated the FCC’s rules on notifying public safety officials and the agency.
“A 911 call is likely the most important call a person will ever make. Public safety officials need to be able to inform the public of alternate ways to reach emergency services in the event of an outage,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.
The February 2023 incident, when Charter did not inform more than 1,000 emergency call centers about an outage, stemmed from a “minor Denial of Service” cyberattack. The settlement also covers “hundreds of planned maintenance-related outages that Charter failed to report to the Commission,” the FCC said.
The telecom provider agreed to a $15 million civil penalty as well as a “robust compliance plan” that includes certain cybersecurity safeguards—the first time the agency has demanded such conditions in the context of outage investigations.
“We’re glad to have resolved these issues, which will primarily result in Charter reporting certain planned maintenance to the FCC,” Charter said in a statement shared by spokesperson Avery Boggs.
She noted that “no flaws were identified by the FCC regarding Charter’s cybersecurity practices. We agreed with the FCC that we should continue doing what we’re already doing.”
The telecom company, which offers services branded as Spectrum, isn’t the only one under the microscope for network outages. AT&T apologized for a nationwide outage in February that prompted an FCC investigation, and internet infrastructure company Lumen said the April installation of a light pole triggered a three-state 911 outage. The massive CrowdStrike IT bug recently took down 911 systems in states including Alaska and Ohio—all incidents that point to fragmented emergency infrastructure.