Other LanguagesTestimony to UTC highlights CenturyLink’s history of outages, impacts on Washingtonians
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson submitted testimony asserting that CenturyLink is responsible for many of the technological failures that caused the widespread 911 outage in December 2018. Ferguson’s testimony also asserts that CenturyLink failed to notify its call centers of the outage as required by law. The testimony includes statements from four Washingtonians impacted by the outage, including one man who still experiences lasting health problems from the delay in emergency medical treatment.
Beginning early in the morning on Dec. 27, 2018, a failure in CenturyLink’s fiber optic network caused widespread outages affecting Washington’s 911 system, severely disrupting emergency communications on and off for more than 49 hours. At least 10,752 calls were blocked from reaching a 911 dispatcher during the outage.
The Attorney General’s Public Counsel Unit — which represents customers of state-regulated utilities — submitted the testimony to the Utilities & Transportation Commission (UTC). CenturyLink faces $7.2 million dollars in penalties for thousands of alleged violations of state law and UTC rules. Ferguson will be calling for a maximum penalty.
The 2018 outage was not the first under CenturyLink’s watch – in April 2014, a preventable coding error in CenturyLink’s 911 system caused a six-hour outage, leaving the entire state without critical 911 services.
During the proceedings over the outage in 2016, Ferguson urged the UTC to impose the maximum regulatory penalty of $11.5 million on CenturyLink for the outage. When the UTC ultimately approved a proposed settlement of $2.8 million, Ferguson released a statement calling the penalties “inadequate…. CenturyLink is getting off with a slap on the wrist.”
“This is not the first time CenturyLink failed to provide reliable 911 services,” Ferguson said. “Imagine being in a car accident or having a medical emergency and not being able to reach 911. As a result of CenturyLink’s conduct, thousands of Washingtonians called 911 only to be met with a busy signal. CenturyLink must pay the maximum penalty for its violations of state law.”
“My family and I have to live with this new reality every day”
As part of the Attorney General’s filings today, four Washingtonians submitted testimony about their experiences during the 911 outage.
- One man from Olympia, David White, experienced an extreme spike in blood pressure during the outage. He and his wife Angela White both submitted testimony about their experiences. He was at home with his wife and daughter when he collapsed. Angela tried calling 911 six times, only to hear three beeps before the line disconnected. After these attempts, she decided she would have to get her husband to the hospital on her own, carrying him to the family truck with help from their daughter. He eventually was able to get help at the hospital, but still experiences lasting symptoms from the delay in treatment.
- In his testimony, he wrote: “It was horrible to realize my family had to carry me to the truck and get me to the hospital themselves, especially when I could have received treatment from EMTs right away. My understanding is that by the time my wife and daughter were able to get me to the hospital themselves my blood pressure had spiked so high that getting it back down was a long process…. The length of that process caused me many new injuries, including Stage 3 kidney disease, glaucoma, migraines and vertigo. My family and I have to live with this new reality every day.”
- Angela wrote: “I believe, but will never know for sure, that prompt EMT treatment and transport during the outage might have kept David’s blood pressure from spiking as high as it did by the time our daughter and I could finally get him to the hospital ourselves.”
- Another man from Pasco, Victor Barajas, was driving to work early in the morning during the outage when he caught ice and hit a median. His car rolled three times. While stuck in his car immediately after the accident, he made several 911 calls, none of which went through. He started calling other people in his phone’s contacts and finally reached his boss, who was able to contact a state trooper. His father also arrived on the scene, and helped him get to the hospital for evaluation.
- Luckily, he was not severely injured from the accident, but was concerned that he couldn’t reach 911 during such a severe accident. “I am very disappointed to learn first-hand that no duplicate system existed that would take over if the regular 911 system failed,” he wrote.
Details of the AGO testimony
CenturyLink, based in Monroe, Louisiana, was under contract with the Washington Military Department’s Emergency Management Division to provide statewide 911 services to Washington. CenturyLink reported total Washington operating revenues of $245 million in 2019.
At the time of the outage, CenturyLink was transferring control of Washington’s 911 system to telecommunications company Comtech. CenturyLink still maintained control of 15 911 call centers during the outage, including those serving some of the most populated counties in the state — King, Snohomish and Pierce. CenturyLink also designed the connection between the two companies that was used for the transition to Comtech. CenturyLink insisted on using outdated technology, and the use of this technology unnecessarily complicated the connection, which exacerbated the 911 outage.
The state’s testimony makes several assertions based on analysis from emergency telecommunications experts, including:
- CenturyLink designed the connection with Comtech, its successor, as part of the transition between the two companies. The technology chosen by CenturyLink over Comtech’s objections was outdated and not sufficiently reliable.
- CenturyLink’s design of the connection between the two companies resulted in a single vendor providing the network element that failed. The outage could have been reduced if the system had incorporated sufficient vendor diversity, so one technological glitch would not cause a widespread failure.
- CenturyLink failed to notify the call centers, both those under its direct management and those that had transitioned to Comtech, that it was experiencing a network outage. Because CenturyLink was responsible for providing access to all telephone carriers, CenturyLink should have also notified the telephone carriers that calls made by their customers to 911 may not go through during the outage.
- CenturyLink has a history of outages on its systems. This outage was the second lengthy statewide outage of the emergency call system managed by CenturyLink since 2014, when the 911 system was down for six hours.
CenturyLink’s response to the parties’ testimony is due on March 30, 2022. After considering the evidence at hearings in August 2022, the UTC will decide on penalties against CenturyLink.
CenturyLink’s history of outages
In April 2014, a preventable coding error in CenturyLink’s 911 system caused a six-hour outage, leaving the entire state without critical 911 services.
Over 5,600 calls to 911 failed in Washington state during the six-hour outage, including calls from victims of assault and domestic violence, witnesses to car accidents and explosions, and patients suffering from chest pain and heart attacks. Alicia Cappola, an Everett mother, was home with her 5-year-old twins and was forced to arm herself with a kitchen knife to ward off an intruder after 37 unsuccessful attempts to get through to 911.
During the outage, CenturyLink did not adequately communicate to the public, the media, 911 call centers and the UTC about the problem and the extent to which 911 services were affected. The UTC investigation found that emergency call centers were not properly notified and “were essentially left to their own devices to get the word out within the public safety community about the 911 outages.”
During the proceedings over the outage in 2016, Ferguson urged the UTC to impose the maximum regulatory penalty of $11.5 million on CenturyLink for the outage. When the UTC ultimately approved a proposed settlement of $2.8 million, Ferguson released a statement calling the penalties “inadequate…. CenturyLink is getting off with a slap on the wrist.”
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