BT has to pay a £17.5 million fine after 14,000 emergency calls could not be delivered due to a service outage

BT was fined £17.5 million after a network outage left 14,000 emergency calls unavailable.

The company connects 999 and 112 calls in the UK and provides relay services for deaf and speech-impaired people.

On Sunday 25 June 2023, BT experienced a network fault that affected the routing of calls to emergency services between 06:24 and 16:56.

During the incident, nearly 14,000 call attempts from 12,392 different callers were unsuccessful, but there were no reports of serious injuries as a result of the incident.

The incident also caused disruptions to text relay calls, meaning people with hearing and speech problems could no longer make calls, including to friends, relatives, businesses and services.

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The investigation launched by Ofcom found that BT did not have adequate warning systems for such incidents, nor did it have appropriate procedures to assess the severity, impact and likely cause of such incidents in a timely manner or to establish mitigation measures.

The supervisory authority identified three key phases in the incident.

In the first case, the emergency call processing system experienced a disruption between 06:24 and 07:33. As it later turned out, this was due to a configuration error in a file on BT’s server.

In the second phase, from 07:33 to 08:50, the company attempted to switch to its disaster recovery platform. However, due to human error, this failed and the incident not only disrupted some calls but eventually led to a total failure of the system.

Ofcom concluded that this was because the instructions were poorly documented and the team were unfamiliar with the process.

From 8.50 to 16.56 tThe number of unsuccessful calls decreased after traffic was successfully migrated to the disaster recovery platform. However, normal service could not be fully restored initially as the disaster recovery platform struggled to cope with demand.

The regulator decided that BT neither had adequate warning systems for such incidents nor appropriate procedures to promptly assess the severity, impact and probable cause of such incidents or to establish measures to limit the damage.

In addition, it was found that the capacity and functionality of BT’s disaster recovery platform were insufficient to handle reasonably anticipated levels of demand.

While there were no confirmed reports of serious harm to the public, “the potential scale of harm was extremely significant” and BT was fined £17.5 million.

Suzanne Cater, Ofcom’s head of enforcement, said: “The ability to contact emergency services can mean the difference between life and death, so providers must be ready to respond quickly and effectively if their networks are disrupted.”

“In this case, BT failed miserably in its responsibilities and was ill-prepared for such a large-scale power outage, exposing its customers to unacceptable risk.

“Today’s fine is a warning to all companies: if you are not adequately prepared for disruptions to your networks, we will hold you strictly accountable on behalf of consumers.”

Ofcom said: “BT self-reported the incident in accordance with its obligations and provided regular updates. BT also co-operated fully with our investigation and provided information to Ofcom in a timely manner when requested.”

BT was asked for comment.