Verizon ‘throttled’ data during the Mendocino Complex firefight, affecting wireless internet speeds, according to the Santa Clara County fire chief in a lawsuit filed on Monday against the Federal Communications Commission.
Santa Clara County joined 22 states and the California Public Utilities Commission in suing the FCC.
“This throttling has had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services. Verizon imposed these limitations despite being informed that throttling was actively impeding County Fire’s ability to provide crisis-response and essential emergency services,” Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden said.
The lawsuit claims the repeal of net neutrality rules in December allowed Verizon to curb data speeds during the firefight.
Bowden claims he contacted Verizon about the situation and says the company offered an upgraded plan that was nearly twice as expensive.
“County Fire believes it is likely that Verizon will continue to use the exigent nature of public safety emergencies and catastrophic events to coerce public agencies into higher cost plans … even if that means risking harm to public safety during negotiations,” Bowden wrote in the court statement.
In response, Verizon claimed that:
“[t]his situation has nothing to do with net neutrality or the current proceeding in court. … This was customer support mistake.” To the contrary, said County Counsel James R. Williams, “Verizon’s throttling has everything to do with net neutrality—it shows that the ISPs will act in their economic interests, even at the expense of public safety. That is exactly what the Trump Administration’s repeal of Net Neutrality allows and encourages.”
Williams added, “in repealing Net Neutrality rules, the Trump Administration failed to consider public safety threats as required by law. For this reason alone, the repeal of Net Neutrality is illegal and must be overturned.”
The Mendocino Complex Fire has charred 390,000 acres and is 79 percent contained on Wednesday. The fire broke out in late June.
Here is a statement from Verizon:
I am writing to ensure that you receive the statement by Mike Maiorana, Verizon Senior Vice President of Public Sector on California wildfires and Hurricane in Hawaii.
“First responders put themselves on the line each and every day. And every day, we are eternally grateful for their bravery and efforts.
In supporting first responders in the Mendocino fire, we didn’t live up to our own promise of service and performance excellence when our process failed some first responders on the line, battling a massive California wildfire. For that, we are truly sorry. And we’re making every effort to ensure that it never happens again.
As of yesterday, we removed all speed cap restrictions for first responders on the west coast and in Hawaii to support current firefighting and Hurricane Lane efforts. Further, in the event of another disaster, Verizon will lift restrictions on public safety customers, providing full network access.
We’ve been working closely with mission critical first responders to refine our service plan to better meet their unique needs. As a result, we’re introducing a new plan that will feature unlimited data, with no caps on mobile solutions and automatically includes priority access. We’ll provide full details when we introduce the plan next week, and we will make it easy to upgrade service at no additional cost.Verizon has long been known as the trusted provider of choice for public safety because of our superior network reliability and our partnership with local first responders in times of crisis. Verizon customers have access to our more than 450,000-square mile 4G LTE coverage advantage over competitors. In addition, we consistently show up in times of disaster to extend our network capabilities, provide our customers with loaner devices, and provide customers of any provider with access to free charging stations.
We are proud to support the men and women who serve us all.”
Thank you,
Rachel Brehm
For Verizon Wireless
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