Ofcom probes BT and Three after outages hit emergency calls
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Ofcom probes BT and Three after outages hit emergency calls
"Ofcom has opened formal investigations into BT and Three after mobile outages this summer left Britons unable to make calls - including to emergency services. The UK's telecoms regulator said on Monday it is examining whether the two operators failed to meet their regulatory obligations after widespread call service disruptions affected millions of users. According to Ofcom, BT notified the watchdog of a software issue on July 24 and 25 that knocked out mobile call services on its EE network nationwide, preventing BT and EE customers"
"Under the terms of their licences, mobile operators must take "appropriate and proportionate" steps to identify and mitigate risks to network availability and performance, and to prevent or remedy any adverse effects when things go wrong. The regulator says its investigation will establish the facts and assess whether there are reasonable grounds to believe BT and Three breached these duties. A spokesperson for Three told The Register it "experienced disruption to voice services following an exceptional spike in network traffic triggered by a third-party software"
Ofcom opened formal investigations into BT and Three after widespread mobile outages left users unable to make calls, including to emergency services. BT reported a software issue on July 24 and 25 that knocked out voice services on the EE network nationwide and prevented calls to other networks and 999. Three reported a June 25 incident that disrupted voice calls and emergency access across its network. Licence conditions require operators to take appropriate and proportionate steps to identify and mitigate network risks and remedy adverse effects. Ofcom will assess whether BT and Three breached those duties. Three said an exceptional traffic spike from a third-party software configuration change triggered disruption and that it is cooperating with Ofcom. Prior fines against BT and Three for emergency-access failures have already attracted regulatory scrutiny.
#regulatory-investigation #mobile-network-outages #emergency-services-access #bt #three
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