Washington state fines CenturyLink $1.3 million for 2-day 911 outage

KIRO 7 News Staff
·1 min read

State regulators fined CenturyLink more than $1.3 million for a 911 outage that affected Washingtonians for more than two days.

According to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC), the outage began on Dec. 27, 2018, as CenturyLink was in the process of transitioning out of its contract to provide 911 services.

The UTC found that CenturyLink broke state laws and harmed the public when it couldn’t connect at least 13,000 911 calls during the nearly 50-hour statewide outage.

Officials said the outage was a result of network design and a technical error that could have been prevented.

“The penalty reflects the serious and potentially life-threatening impact an outage has on ensuring that vital life-saving services are available for Washington residents,” the UTC said in a news release.

CenturyLink was also fined $2.8 million for a 911 outage in 2014 that “severely disrupted” emergency services for six hours.

The company is no longer the statewide 911 provider.