Telecommunications giant BT has been slapped with a hefty £17.5 million fine by Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator, for a network disruption that affected 14,000 emergency calls and posed an “unacceptable risk” to the public. The disruption, which occurred on Sunday 25 June last year, lasted for more than 10 hours.
While no serious harm was reported by emergency services during the disruption, Ofcom found several failures in BT’s handling of the situation. The regulator stated that BT did not have sufficient warning systems in place to anticipate such an incident, nor did it have adequate procedures to promptly assess the severity, impact, and likely cause of the disruption or to identify mitigating actions.
Ofcom also found that BT’s disaster recovery platform was not equipped to handle the level of demand that could reasonably be expected. The incident also caused disruption to text relay calls, leaving those with hearing and speech difficulties unable to make any calls, putting them at an increased risk of harm.
The regulator’s report revealed that the disruption was initially caused by a configuration error in a file on BT’s server, and a switch to its disaster recovery platform was delayed due to human error. The back-up system also struggled to meet the high demand.
Suzanne Cater, Ofcom’s director of enforcement, emphasized the crucial nature of being able to contact emergency services, stating that it can be a matter of life and death. She expressed disappointment in BT’s failure to adequately respond to such a large-scale outage, putting its customers at risk.
Cater added that this fine serves as a warning to all firms, emphasizing the importance of being prepared to deal with disruptions to their networks and holding them accountable on behalf of consumers. Ofcom noted that BT self-reported the incident and fully cooperated in the investigation. The company has taken steps to address the issues identified.
