Is Another Fine Coming to Century Link After 911 Outage?
If the 'tea leaves' are correct, it appears the Washington State Attorney General is possibly considering another suit or complaiint against Century Link.
AG Bob Ferguson released information Tuesday, saying the AG's office seeking input and information from people who were impacted by the recent 911 outage that occurred December 27-28, 2018.
After a six hour outage in 2014, Ferguson urged the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) to impose a fine on Century Link. Ferguson used as one of his examples the case of an Everett mother who was forced to arm herself with a knife and barricade herself in her home to ward off an intruder. She had reportedly called 911 37 times, but due to the outage, was not able to summon police. Fortunately, she survived. The fine levied at that time was $11.5 million.
According to Ferguson:
“For the second time, CenturyLink has fallen short of its obligation to provide reliable 911 services for Washingtonians,” Ferguson said. “If you called for help during this outage, only to be met with a busy signal, please share your story with my office. We want to know exactly how CenturyLink’s failure impacted the people of our state.”
According to Ferguson, if you believe you were legitimately and negatively affected by the 911 outage in December, you're asked to email detailed information to his office. The link to that email can be obtained by clicking here.
Ferguson and his staff have not specifically said if they again will urge the UTC to issue another fine against Century Link.