Three UK fined £1.9M over failure to provide non-stop access to 999 services

Ofcom: Tech issues should never hamper customers’ ability to make emergency calls.

Kelly Fiveash – Jun 16, 2017 10:01 am | 8

Credit: Three

Three UK has been hit with a £1.9 million fine from communications regulator Ofcom, after the mobile operator breached a rule that safeguards customers’ ability to make emergency calls over a network at all times.

The watchdog opened an investigation in October last year, when Three admitted to Ofcom that customers in Kent, Hampshire, and parts of London were affected by a temporary loss of service on its network.

It meant that anyone dialling 999 in those areas had their calls pass through “a particular data centre” to reach ambulance, police, and fire services, Ofcom said, adding that “Three’s emergency call service was vulnerable to a single point of failure.”

Despite the blunder, Three said it takes the requirement “extremely seriously.” It was also keen to stress that “this vulnerability has not had any impact on our customers and only relates to a potential point of failure in Three’s network.”

Ofcom, which has now settled the probe, said the weakness in Three’s emergency call network was serious and added that the fine reflected the severity of the incident, “given the potential impact on public health and safety.”

Because Three admitted the breaches laid out by the regulator and cooperated fully with the investigation, Ofcom reduced the penalty by 30 percent. The £1,890,000 fine must be paid within the next 20 working days and it will be passed on to the treasury. Three said:

Ofcom identified this vulnerability when investigating a separate, unprecedented and unforeseeable October 2016 fibre break outage on Three’s network. This resulted in a temporary loss of emergency call services affecting some customers. Three took immediate action and the issue was quickly resolved.

Ofcom recognises that the circumstances surrounding the October 2016 fibre break outage were exceptional and outside of Three’s control. As a result, the incident itself was not a breach of Ofcom’s rules.

The mobile operator added that it had “taken steps to further strengthen the resilience of Three’s network” in light of the single point of failure gaffe.

Ofcom’s enforcement and investigations director, Gaucho Rasmussen, said that the “fine serves as a clear warning to the wider telecoms industry. Providers must take all necessary steps to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency services.”