BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) has been fined £17.5 million by Ofcom due to failures in handling 999 emergency calls.
The fine follows an investigation into an eight-hour period in 2021 when outages led to approximately 11,000 missed emergency calls.
In delivering the fine, Ofcom accused BT of lacking sufficient warning systems to deal with such incidents.
“We also found that BT’s disaster recovery platform had insufficient capacity and functionality to deal with a level of demand that might reasonably be expected,” said the regulator.
The incident caused disruption to text relay calls, meaning hearing and speech-impaired people were unable to make any calls, including to friends, family, businesses and services.
Suzanne Cater, Ofcom’s director of enforcement, stated: “Being able to contact the emergency services can mean the difference between life and death, so in the event of any disruption to their networks, providers must be ready to respond quickly and effectively.
“In this case, BT fell woefully short of its responsibilities and was ill-prepared to deal with such a large-scale outage, putting its customers at unacceptable risk.
“Today’s fine sends a broader warning to all firms -– if you’re not properly prepared to deal with disruption to your networks, we’ll hold you to strict account on behalf of consumers.”