Pai Directs FCC Probe Into Nationwide CenturyLink Outage

The CenturyLink outage is "completely unacceptable, and its breadth and duration are particularly troubling," said Pai, directing the Public Safety Bureau to investigate cause and impact. “This inquiry will include an examination of the effect that CenturyLink’s outage appears to have had on other providers’ 911 services. I have also spoken with CenturyLink to underscore the urgency of restoring service immediately.”

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel had urged investigation Thursday. “I’m glad that the @FCC Chairman has now agreed to my call for an investigation of the @CenturyLink outage,” she tweeted Friday. “Now let’s get to work.”

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission also will investigate, it said Friday. "The UTC’s investigation will look into the cause of the outage, the company’s emergency preparedness and response, restoration efforts, and communication with the public." The agency said E911 interruptions started Thursday at 8:30 p.m. and the company reported stable E911 services Friday morning.

CenturyLink is "in contact with the FCC and policymakers and will cooperate fully with any investigation," the carrier's spokesperson said Friday. "CenturyLink has been dealing with a network event. We take all service interruptions seriously and have had teams working around the clock to restore affected services. We have made substantial progress in restoring and stabilizing services across the network over the last several hours."

"While our network is experiencing service disruptions, where CenturyLink is the 911 service provider 911 calls are completing," the carrier tweeted Friday after earlier acknowledging 911 disruptions in various areas across the U.S. The carrier earlier tweeted, “Restoring impacted services for our customers is very important to us. We are seeing good progress, but our service restoration work is not complete.” Late Thursday on Twitter, the carrier said its engineers identified a network element affecting service and expected to restore service in four hours. But the carrier didn’t, and Friday morning tweeted that it had discovered some additional technical problems.

NENA applauded swift FCC action. “We will continue to work closely with government and industry partners to understand the scope and causes of this outage, and look forward to using the lessons learned from this investigation to prevent future outages and reduce their impact on affected 9-1-1 centers and consumers,” said NENA Director-Government Affairs Dan Henry. NG-911 would help because it “can intelligently route around outages, redirect calls to other regions, and use backup facilities in ways that legacy E9-1-1 systems cannot,” he said. “NENA hopes the incoming Congress will demonstrate its commitment to public safety by prioritizing a coordinated, nationwide transition to NG9-1-1.”

“Major telecommunications service outages are always a cause for concern,” said NARUC Telecom Committee Chair Karen Charles Peterson. “It’s more than simply an inconvenience, particularly when access to 911 is affected. We support the FCC’s decision to investigate the cause of this incident and urge them to work collaboratively with states to ensure that there is transparency into these outages and how they are reported.”

The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates asks “that all necessary resources be devoted to resolving this urgent public health and safety crisis,” emailed NASUCA President Elin Swanson Katz. Reliable access to 911 through all types of calling technology is essential, said Katz, applauding the FCC probe. NASUCA calls for all parties “to issue immediate and repeated emergency advisories to affected consumers and state and local officials, notifying them of the outage and educating them on alternative means of summoning emergency services,” she said. “Immediate remedial steps [should] be ordered to prevent a repeat of this dangerous critical services outage."

States and localities on both coasts alerted the public about the CenturyLink outage disrupting 911. A Friday wireless alert from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency -- received by a Communications Daily reporter in Chatham at 11:40 a.m. and again at 1:35 p.m. -- read: “Per MEMA. Sporadic 911 outages. In emergency use 10-digit number for local police/fire.” On Twitter, Massachusetts state police Friday afternoon reported “sporadic outages affecting cellular and certain landline 911 calls” after earlier saying 911 issues were resolved.

“The widespread 9-1-1 outage caused by a malfunction at CenturyLink continues to affect King County,” the Washington state county said Friday. “9-1-1 call centers continue to have difficulty receiving phone calls, both from landlines and cell phones.” The South Sound 911 center in Pierce County, Washington, tweeted that it was receiving 911 calls again Friday but wasn’t certain the problem was resolved.