FCC calls for Verizon probe into thousands of dropped 9-1-1 calls

By on Feb 22, 2011 at 11:40 PM
Services February 22, 2011

In a letter sent last Thursday to the nation’s top wireless carrier, the Federal Communications Commission is calling for an investigation into thousands of dropped emergency calls placed during a blizzard in late January. Approximately 10,000 emergency 9-1-1 calls placed on the Verizon Wireless network in Maryland were dropped, the FCC says. The calls were made on January 26th during a major snowstorm. “The large number of missed 9-1-1 calls on January 26 is truly alarming,” FCC public safety and security chief James Arden Barnett wrote in the letter. “I therefore request that Verizon provide an explanation of the causes of this and similar failures, provide Verizon’s assessment of the possibility of occurrence in other locations and describe what actions Verizon is taking to prevent recurrence of these problems.” The FCC is calling for a written response to its inquiry, along with a meeting within two weeks to discuss Verizon’s resolution of the issue.

[Via Wireless Week]

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46 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    When will the FCC look into AT&T for dropping all of their calls, period?

    • http://twitter.com/rednick261 Nick Munyat

      Wow, it didn’t take long for some VZ fanboy to talk about that about which he knows nothing.

    • bigdaddy

      Fuck u ATT is way better then Verizon chod

    • Aly

      I think 911 dropped calls are much more important don’t you think?

    • Carl

      Leave Norm alone. We will be using our iphone 4Gs on the best network in America and won’t drop calls ever. I can’t wait till we get the 5G iphone in the summer and AT&T won’t.

      • Anonymous

        Hate to break the bad news to you Carl. But att will get the iPhone 5 8 months before verizon will see it. Do the math smarty

      • Guest

        Carl…….you 4G “network” might be slower than some companies 3G network….sorry to break it to ya. Big Red is focused on covergae, not speeds

      • Random

        actually hate to break it to you, but I was just in vegas with a LTE aircard and was pulling 42 down. not sure of any 3g network capable of that

      • http://twitter.com/rednick261 Nick Munyat

        Actually, if a new iPhone launches this summer, it’ll probably go to both carriers. But, it most likely won’t be LTE-ready. But, it probably will be HSPA+. ATT win.

    • VZGUEST

      Norm – let me hear your say

      “DROID DOES …. drop calls”

    • ATTsuxcox

      Lmfao!

  • Anonymous

    can you hear me now?!…

  • Anonymous

    “It’s the network.”

  • Anonymous

    America’s largest and most reliable wireless network**

    **except in cases of emergency. ;)

    • Nofan

      ….so I love the service…but that was hilarious

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503037611 Brett Smith

      Okay, that’s pretty funny. I can see ATT jumping all over this one.

  • Kevin

    Unfortunately, this will turn into a bash Verizon Wireless article, but if you read the inquiry, it basically boils down to Verizon Landline having issues with their connections to the PSAPs. It really has NOTHING to do with Verizon Wireless “dropping” calls to 911.

    • http://www.facebook.com/tylahholden Tyler Holden

      Correct. The Wireline Verizon is what the problem was. Nothing Verizon Wireless it self could have controlled.

    • Tn7871

      Did you read the PDF link? They are clearly talking about the wireless network. They call it by name.

      • Kevin

        Actually, I did. Here it is right from the PDF:

        The trunks from these Selective Routers to the PSAPs are maintained by Verizon
        (not Verizon Wireless)

        When the trucks were placed out of service, that was NOT Verizon Wireless “dropping” the call. That was Verizon Landline having some pretty major issues. It just happend to be the case that the trunks that went out of service were those that handled wireless e911 calls.

      • attverizonfan

        OK. If Verizon Wireless’ 911 services go over routers maintained by Verizon, does that now mean that the Verizon Wireless 911 calls were actually reliable? It means that Verizon Wireless service failed in this case. It makes no difference to the wireless cell phone users why – their calls did not go through and so therefore, the wireless 911 service was unreliable. Are you perhaps paid by Verizon?

        BTW, AT&T cited iphone users as to why their calls do not go through. I thought that was also a good excuse.

      • Wow

        Did you read all of the article or just stop when the word Verizon Wireless came up? You actually have to read the entire letter to understand what actually happened. Did Verizon Wireless drop 911 calls? Yes. Was the problem caused by Verizon Landline? No. Either way this is a legitimate inquiry into why the service did not work as intended.

        Jesus…I really wish more people would stop chest thumping their wireless carrier. It’s cell service….who gives a f**k.

      • Wow

        (Correction)

        Was the problem cause by Verizon Landline? Yes

        I need to proof-read before hitting submit.

  • Joel

    What a waste of money. It is called a blizzard same reason your Internet home phone drops calls, bad weather = in reliable service

  • migs

    does it really matter who the carrier is? i am neither a Verizon nor a AT&T customer. bottom line is that things like this SHOULD NOT HAPPEN!!! thousands of HUMAN lives were in danger and probably lives were lost. those who are making stupid comments cuz of fanboyism are freagin idiots.

    • KCRic

      Thousands of lives were in danger and lives were lost because of it? Bit of a drama queen aren’t we? Since the emergency vehicles had to pretty much dig their way to where ever they were responding to, I doubt a 911 call would have made any difference if the situation was that dire.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000960163363 Annie Migs

        u call me a drama queen..do ya think those emergency vehicles would have gotten to those people faster if the 911 were working, i rest my case, get your priorities straight. even 1 life is too much.

  • Tn7871

    As a Verizon customer, this is scary.

  • Anonymous

    “911, what is your emergency?… I’m sorry but I can’t hear you now. Please call back on an AT&T phone.”

    • Chut Pata

      Oops there is no AT&T signal here. I will have to use a pay phone. Damn that is no pay phone, it is freaking TARDIS. Oh shoot, there is no pay phone in sight.

      • Chut Pata

        Ok, I will go home and call from a landline. Shoot. I replaced my home phone with Vonage, and the internet is down.

  • @j_nathaniel

    Well, they should probably look into T-Mobile in the Atlanta area as well then. I have called on a number of occasions for emergency assistance, not for myself, but for other drivers involved in automobile incidents as well as a homeless person dodging traffic on the interstate. Every single time I have called 911 in Atlanta the call has been dropped. Every single time. Other calls went through just fine. In fact, I was on the car’s bluetooth on one phone when I stopped to use the other phone to call emergency assistance. Both phones are T-Mobile. The personal call stayed connected while I dialed 911 and had the emergency call drop twice…then I was placed on hold, transferred a few times, then got through to a desk seargent…yes, for a 911 call. Obviously, that part was the 911 operator’s fault, but the dropped calls were all a T-Mobile issue.

    Basically, it is not only Verizon having a problem with this. It is much more common than I think it realized.

    • Chut Pata

      I am in Atlanta area and used to have T-Mo once. Wherever there was no signal for T-Mo, the 911 call were picked up by whatever company had signal. I think that is the law. I dumped T-Mo for Verizon just because Verizon voice was good in rural areas (better than AT&T) and I could not afford to miss a call.

  • ATTsuxcox

    Get up, ah git git down, 911′s a joke in yo town…anyone think to blame 911? The wireless network debate is really stupid: if you ain’t got Verizon you ain’t got a network. Period. Oh, wait maybe you do. Let’s not forget that half the wireless providers out there are really using Verizon’s network. Oops, you didn’t know that didja? For all ya’ll Verizon haters out there, the next time you are twisting your brain trying to understand some dude from India tell you how to fix your phone or service, there will be another satisfied Verizon customer getting help from an American who speaks ENGLISH. Can you hear me now?

    • http://twitter.com/rednick261 Nick Munyat

      You really have no clue what you’re talking about, do you? Verizon and Sprint have roaming agreements with each other (which means your VZ phone might roam on Sprint), and several local CDMA carriers roam on Verizon. GSM (T-Mobile and ATT) is a different technology from CDMA (VZ and Sprint) and don’t roam on one another. Finally, ATT customer care is based in the US. Your name, though, kind of gave away the type of post you’d contribute.

      • ATTsuxcox

        Ive got a much better understanding than you realize and you have displayed your ignorance by confusing “roaming agreements” with “networks”. do you really think that all these different wireless companies have managed to build towers nationwide? Not a freakin chance. Before you pound away on your keyboard like a monkey trying to type the Bible, check to see who actually OWNS the cellphone towers in this country. Towers are like office space in a sky scraper. I might own the building and use half of it for my own business but rent the rest out to other companies. Same thing with towers. If your wireless provider is using MY towers to transmit and receive signals then you ARE using my network. Go do your research.

    • Homer

      The maturity level displayed here indicates to me that you are still on mommy and daddy’s plan… Try getting your own Verizon plan, they’ll tell you it’ll be a $400 deposit to activate then you’ll get raped with a $150 phone bill every month, then STILL drop calls and have shitty internet speeds. Is that really worth your minimum wage paycheck every month…. didn’t think so.

  • Chris502

    The really bad thing about this is, Verizon didn’t know about it till the local emergency in Maryland that was noticing the dropped calls mentioned it to them.

  • Anonymous

    Didn’t take to long for a att comment to come up. I’ve had them for many years and don’t have dropped calls. I swear you people believe everything you hear. They have 98 million subscribers. Now if that many people are sticking with them and having as many problems as you people think. Then there 98 million morons out there.

    • Nod

      I think there is a few more than 98 mil

    • ATTsuxcox

      Gee, don’t you watch commercials? Everyone talks trash about ATT. If it weren’t true, you can bet your ass that ATT would sue those commercials off the air. But, they don’t. They can’t because it’s all true. Maybe you should do some research into the time ATT tried suing Verizon for a commercial but dropped the suit because everything Verizon claimed was true. Are you claiming ATT has 98 million subscribers? I noticed that you didnt say anything about how many Verizon has. Would you care to inform us of those numbers as well? Prolly not because according to last quarters’ numbers ( that would be the last three months of last year), ATT and Verizon had almost the same number of subscribers and I’ll bet by the end of this quarter Verizon has more. Think about this, if ATT was all you make it out to be, why would Apple produce an iPhone compatible with Verizon’s network? Hey, while your doing your homework on those other assignments I gave you, why don’t you check out how many Verizon iPhones have recently been sold. One last thing, my grandaddy had hemorrhoids for many years and didnt have many dropped terds either. Sounds like yall got something in common.

      • Anonymous

        Sorry I was wrong AT&T has 99.8 million and verizon has 102.3. What’s your point? They gave verizon the iPhone so they can sell more phone. AT&T also gained 2.4 million subs and verizon lost 700,000. Common sense endless you talking to a child which I am. I could careless what carrier you like or not I own apple stock not AT&T or verizon.

  • Chut Pata

    “911 please state your emergency”
    “Can you hear me now?”
    “Nope”
    “You can’t hear me when my life matters?”
    “No, but I can hear you when you are dating”.

  • http://www.facebook.com/wmcdaniel1 Wes McDaniel

    So much for that “solid” network you guys are always raving about. I believe, for the sake of fairness, it’s time to blame the iPhone, and Verizon’s inability to handle it’s under-forecast new traffic, for this.

  • Verizon>ATT

    Maybe because it was in the middle of a Blizzard and ten thousand people in the same area were trying to make calls at the same time.

  • ATTsuxcox

    Even if all those calls made it through, how many do you suppose were actual emergencies?
    Even if they were all life threatening, do you really believe that there would have been enough cops, ambulances, and firetrucks to save everyone? How many people actually died because of a dropped 911 call? How the f*@# did humans ever survive without the almighty cellphone and 911? Man the hell up.

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