Washington AG Seeking Maximum Penalty Against CenturyLink Over 911 Outage

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is seeking the maximum penalty in a lawsuit against CenturyLink after submitting testimony against the tech giant this week.

Ferguson says a failure in CenturyLink’s fiber optic network led to nearly 11,000 calls being blocked from reaching 911 dispatchers during a two-day period in 2018.

Ferguson also says CenturyLink broke the law by failing to inform its call centers about the outage.

The company is facing up to $7.2 million in fines for possible violations of state law.

Ferguson submitted testimony before the state Utilities and Transportation Commission this week.

“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 busy signal. CenturyLink must pay the maximum penalty for its violations of state law.”

Ferguson also sued the company for an April 2014 coding error in CenturyLink’s 911 system that caused a six-hour outage.

In addition, CenturyLink was ordered to pay $6.1 over hidden customer fees in 2016.