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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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:20PM (6 children)
Yep, unlimited should be unlimited.
OTOH who doesn't know that Verizon has no such thing as an unlimited plan? That any and all plans are subject to throttling and restriction? Does anybody competent not know this? (And yep, I'm running a No True Scotsman risk, but I think it's justified in this case).
Given that, the real question is what bright brain thought that the command and control vehicle for Los Angeles County Fire could get by with a $99 or less per month data plan????? I'd like that person's job because I know I can do better at it with some simple critical thinking.
And what brighter brains decided that for vital public service communication such links should go through any commercial provider? Can't they roll their own countywide data network? And the answer today is "probably not" when the answer of yesteryear was, "Hey, that's probably too important to just rely on a commercial provider's solution. At least not without any backup plan whatsoever."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Knowledge Troll on Wednesday August 22 2018, @09:32PM (4 children)
I'm glad someone else said it. Fault lies with who ever failed to vet the terms of service associated with a life critical service.
Verizon sucks. Verizon should have immediately given the fire department unrestricted access and told them to work out the details later.
But the details are to have the right subscription to an appropriate class of service to fit their use case.
It is negligent to depend on a service for life and safety and not read the terms of the contract. Who ever bought the service is at fault.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Wednesday August 22 2018, @11:45PM (3 children)
In other forums, people have stated that Verizon changed the terms of their "unlimited" plan.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Thursday August 23 2018, @12:19AM
We can speculate all we want about what their agreement was but what matters is what was in the contract that was agreed to by the fire department and Verizon. I don't have that verbiage and I doubt anyone here does.
We don't have to speculate that the fire department's job is to ensure the contract not only specifies 100% throughput all the time but that for the duration of the contract that the terms do not change. Further that the remedy for the violation of the contract is in the millions of dollars per hour because of the risk to life and safety.
Considering the fire department is taking to Twitter instead of the courts to get remedy tells me they don't have provisions like that. They are deflecting blame for their incompetence.
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday August 23 2018, @01:10AM (1 child)
So many contracts, we say we can change the contract whenever we want. But there's always, the other side can cancel when you do that. If Verizon changed, brave First Responders -- or you or I -- can look at that and say, "oh, should we stick with this one, or, try another?" And get out of the contract if they want to.
There's no excuse for it. California is the home of terrible government. I said, California is a State of emergency. And I'm sending so much money to them -- YOUR money. Possibly, not a good idea. I'm sending them all this money, and they're getting a VERY CHEAP cell phone plan. Where's your money going?
By the way, so many fires, while they divert MASSIVE amounts of water into Pacific Ocean. They call it "rivers," I call it VERY FOOLISH. Tree clear, put water where trees were -- not in ocean. No more fires. Easy!!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @03:19AM
as lulzy as these posts are, I refuse to believe that Trump would type this
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @02:18AM
https://www.verizonwireless.com/plans/unlimited/ [verizonwireless.com]
What's that? Says unlimited but isn't? Where I come from we call that "fraudulent advertising." Note the "fraud" part of that.
You or I commit fraud against Verizon? Prison time. Verizon commits fraud against tens of millions of people? *yawn*
Forget net neutrality, I want justice neutrality.