Charter Communications to Pay $15 Million Fine Over 911 Outage Notification Failures

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Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR.O) has agreed to pay a $15 million civil penalty to settle an investigation into its compliance with network and 911 outage notification regulations, as announced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday. This settlement addresses Charter’s failures to properly notify public safety officials and the FCC regarding multiple network outages in 2023.

The FCC revealed that Charter admitted to breaching its rules on outage notifications in relation to three unplanned network disruptions and hundreds of scheduled maintenance-related outages throughout the year. Notably, a network outage in February 2023 was attributed to a minor denial-of-service attack that targeted Charter’s infrastructure.

In response to the fine, Charter expressed relief at resolving the issues, stating that the penalty is primarily related to procedural notifications rather than any cybersecurity breaches. The company emphasized that it will now focus on improving its reporting of planned maintenance to the FCC to prevent future issues.

The FCC’s investigation uncovered that Charter failed to inform over 1,000 emergency call centers about a service disruption that impacted 911 services, thereby not adhering to the Commission’s outage reporting requirements. The settlement introduces a “first-of-its-kind” application of specific cybersecurity measures, including network segmentation and vulnerability management, aimed at enhancing 911 communication services and network outage reporting protocols.

According to FCC regulations, service providers like Charter are required to promptly notify 911 call centers of outages that last longer than 30 minutes and may affect these critical services.

This settlement follows a recent similar case involving Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ.N), which agreed to pay a $1.05 million fine last month after a December 2022 outage caused a one-hour and forty-four-minute disruption, affecting hundreds of 911 calls through its wireless network.

In 2021, T-Mobile USA Inc. (TMUS.O) settled with the FCC for $19.5 million following a significant 2020 outage that resulted in over 20,000 failed 911 emergency calls.

Overall, Charter Communications’ penalty underscores the ongoing scrutiny of network reliability and emergency communication protocols, as regulatory bodies continue to enforce strict compliance standards to ensure public safety