Communications regulator Ofcom has fined BT £17.5 million for being “ill prepared to respond to a catastrophic failure of its emergency call handling service last summer”.
The fine has come in response to an incident on 25 June 2023, when BT experienced a network fault that affected its ability to connect 999 and 112 calls to emergency services between 06:24 and 16:56. During the incident, nearly 14,000 call attempts – from 12,392 different callers – were unsuccessful.
On the same day BT notified Ofcom of the issue, as required by law, and on 28 June the regulator opened an investigation to establish whether the company had failed to comply with its legal duties to take appropriate and proportionate measures to prepare for potential disruption to its network.
Ofcom said: “We found that BT did not have sufficient warning systems in place for when this kind of incident occurs, nor did it have adequate procedures for promptly assessing the severity, impact and likely cause of any such incident or for identifying mitigating actions.
“We also found that BT’s disaster recovery platform had insufficient capacity and functionality to deal with a level of demand that might reasonably be expected.”
Further disruption
The incident also caused disruption to text relay calls, which meant people with hearing and speech difficulties were unable to make any calls and leaving them at increased risk of harm.
“BT is a large, well resourced and experienced communications provider,” Ofcom said. “Although there have been no confirmed reports by the emergency authorities of serious harm to members of the public as a result of the incident, the potential degree of harm was extremely significant.
“As a result of BT’s failures, Ofcom has decided to fine the company £17,500,000.”
Ofcom’s director of enforcement, Suzanne Cater, said: “In this case, BT fell woefully short of its responsibilities and was ill-prepared to deal with such a large scale outage, putting its customers at unacceptable risk.
“Today’s fine sends a broader warning to all firms -– if you’re not properly prepared to deal with disruption to your networks, we’ll hold you to strict account on behalf of consumers.”
Two-month deadline
BT must pay the fine within two months of this decision, and it will then be passed on to HM Treasury. It includes a 30% reduction as a result of BT’s admission of liability and agreement to settle the case.
According to BBC News, BT responded by saying it accepted Ofcom's findings and had put in place measures to "prevent this series of events reoccurring".
"While no technology is 100% resilient, we have built a highly robust network with multiple layers of protection to connect the public to blue light services in their time of need," a spokesperson said.
"We take our responsibility to the emergency services and the public seriously, and on this occasion, we fell short of our own high standards for the 999 service."
