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posted by chromas on Wednesday August 22 2018, @07:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the Sorry,-your-contract-only-allows-a-garden-hose dept.

California wildfires: Verizon throttled data during crisis

Santa Clara County's fire chief has complained the company throttled an emergency vehicle's data rate to about 0.5% of its normal level.

The limit was enforced despite Verizon being told it was hampering efforts to tackle the wildfire.

Verizon said a mistake had been made.

However, it highlighted that the fire department had subscribed to a contract that stated data throughput would be cut after a usage limit had been hit.

"Regardless of the plan emergency responders choose, we have a practice to remove data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations," a spokeswoman told the Mercury News newspaper.

"In this situation, we should have lifted the speed restriction when our customer reached out to us.

"We are reviewing the situation and will fix any issues going forward."

Verizon Throttled Fire Department's "Unlimited" Data During Calif. Wildfire

Verizon Wireless' throttling of a fire department that uses its data services has been submitted as evidence in a lawsuit that seeks to reinstate federal net neutrality rules.

"County Fire has experienced throttling by its ISP, Verizon," Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden wrote in a declaration. "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."

Bowden's declaration was submitted in an addendum to a brief filed by 22 state attorneys general, the District of Columbia, Santa Clara County, Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District, and the California Public Utilities Commission. The government agencies are seeking to overturn the recent repeal of net neutrality rules in a lawsuit they filed against the Federal Communications Commission in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

"The Internet has become an essential tool in providing fire and emergency response, particularly for events like large fires which require the rapid deployment and organization of thousands of personnel and hundreds of fire engines, aircraft, and bulldozers," Bowden wrote.

Santa Clara Fire paid Verizon for "unlimited" data but suffered from heavy throttling until the department paid Verizon more, according to Bowden's declaration and emails between the fire department and Verizon that were submitted as evidence.

The throttling recently affected "OES 5262," a fire department vehicle that is "deployed to large incidents as a command and control resource" and is used to "track, organize, and prioritize routing of resources from around the state and country to the sites where they are most needed," Bowden wrote.

"OES 5262 also coordinates all local government resources deployed to the Mendocino Complex Fire," an ongoing wildfire that is the largest in California's history, Bowden wrote.

The vehicle has a device that uses a Verizon SIM card for Internet access.

"In the midst of our response to the Mendocino Complex Fire, County Fire discovered the data connection for OES 5262 was being throttled by Verizon, and data rates had been reduced to 1/200, or less, than the previous speeds," Bowden wrote. "These reduced speeds severely interfered with the OES 5262's ability to function effectively. My Information Technology staff communicated directly with Verizon via email about the throttling, requesting it be immediately lifted for public safety purposes."

Verizon did not immediately restore full speeds to the device, however.

"Verizon representatives confirmed the throttling, but rather than restoring us to an essential data transfer speed, they indicated that County Fire would have to switch to a new data plan at more than twice the cost, and they would only remove throttling after we contacted the Department that handles billing and switched to the new data plan," Bowden wrote.

Because the throttling continued until the department was able to upgrade its subscription, "County Fire personnel were forced to use other agencies' Internet Service Providers and their own personal devices to provide the necessary connectivity and data transfer capability required by OES 5262," Bowden wrote.

[...] Santa Clara apparently switched to the $99.99 plan, more than doubling its bill. "While Verizon ultimately did lift the throttling, it was only after County Fire subscribed to a new, more expensive plan," Bowden wrote in his declaration.


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 22 2018, @08:02PM (9 children)

    by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday August 22 2018, @08:02PM (#724839)

    Verizon said a mistake had been made.

    However, it highlighted that the fire department had subscribed to a contract that stated data throughput would be cut after a usage limit had been hit.

    I think the mistake made was believing Verizon when they said the contract was unlimited

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Sulla on Wednesday August 22 2018, @08:07PM

    by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday August 22 2018, @08:07PM (#724840) Journal

    The complaint to me seems like it was speed and not about connection, did the firefighters ever lose their connection? Unlimited uptime!

    --
    Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Wednesday August 22 2018, @08:45PM (7 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 22 2018, @08:45PM (#724851) Journal

    Verizon said a mistake had been made...

    I think the mistake made was believing Verizon when they said the contract was unlimited

    This is the same Verizon [blogspot.com] who thinks that .002 dollars is the same amount of money as .002 cents. It's hard to know which is greater, their "don't know" or their" don't care".

    "We are reviewing the situation and will fix any issues going forward."

    Lives and structures already lost because of delayed fire service are just too bad, but going forward they will totally fix any issues they cause.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @10:19PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @10:19PM (#724900)

      Lives and structures lost because they couldn't get a tweet out?

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Thursday August 23 2018, @01:55AM (5 children)

        by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 23 2018, @01:55AM (#725009) Journal

        Quoting TFS about command-and-control vehicle OES 5262, which uses a Verizon SIM with "unlimited" service for its Internet connection:

        "OES 5262...coordinates all local government resources deployed to the Mendocino Complex Fire," an ongoing wildfire that is the largest in California's history... "In the midst of our response to the Mendocino Complex Fire, County Fire discovered the data connection for OES 5262 was being throttled by Verizon, and data rates had been reduced to 1/200, or less, than the previous speeds," Bowden wrote. "These reduced speeds severely interfered with the OES 5262's ability to function effectively."

        You tweet, the president tweets, these guys control fire response over Internet.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @05:33AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @05:33AM (#725083)

          Perhaps they shouldn't have been watching movies over that connection during "down" times.

          • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday August 23 2018, @03:30PM (2 children)

            by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 23 2018, @03:30PM (#725236) Journal

            Perhaps they shouldn't have been watching movies over that connection

            Perhaps, perhaps not; you're right there. But whether they were watching movies, torrenting firefighter fanfiction, or whatnot, something that is a "for sure" and not a "perhaps" is this:

            "Regardless of the plan emergency responders choose, we have a practice to remove data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations," a [Verizon] spokeswoman told the Mercury News newspaper. "In this situation, we should have lifted the speed restriction [but did not] when our customer reached out to us [and instead put them through a tech support obstacle course and made them buy another plan].

            Your no-movies argument boils down to "they should have known Verizon was incompetent", which, to be honest, is about right.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:23PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:23PM (#725257)

              I'm just suspicious of what they were doing to exceed the data caps. Advertised caps before carriers drop your speed are usually 2-4 GB/month. AFAIK it pretty much requires media consumption to reach that level. Charitably considering that they may have been sending work related documents, that would be 2000 1-megabyte M$-Word documents.

              If they really need that much more, let them (us) pay for the extra capacity. Nothing is unlimited, and if there is no expectation of being capped, people will abuse it.

              • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:35PM

                by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:35PM (#725262) Journal

                AFAIK it pretty much requires media consumption to reach that level.

                Professional firefighting consists of probably 90% sitting around bored, watching TV Netflix and waiting for a call, and perhaps 10% critical, life-threatening action.

                I wouldn't suspiciously begrudge firefighters the former, considering that they provide the latter unhesitatingly.

                I concur, however, that their $50/mo. data plan was apparently not suitable for its intended use. Maybe the $100/mo. plan, that they bitterly complain has "doubled" their cost, will be more suitable.

        • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:28PM

          by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday August 23 2018, @04:28PM (#725260)

          and data rates had been reduced to 1/200, or less, than the previous speeds

          I get the idea of throttling logically, but damn. At that point you may as well just cut them off entirely. It wouldn't kill these jerks to throttle at a more usable level like even 1/20th.

          Presumably they're not just cutting them off totally in their continuing effort to bend the definition of "unlimited" over a table. "We're not technically lying..."

          --
          "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"