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Verizon Apologizes for Throttling Firefighters' Internet Connections

posted by chromas on Saturday August 25 2018, @06:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the metaphorical-fire dept.

takyon writes:

Verizon tries to douse criticism, touts "priority access" for first responders -- Firefighters don't like their mobile hotspots slowed to a "dial-up modem from 1995."

Verizon officials were contrite and apologetic during a California State Assembly committee hearing that was convened Friday to examine mobile Internet throttling experienced by firefighters during recent blazes. "We all make mistakes from time to time, the true measure of leadership is how soon we admit it, own it," Rudy Reyes told the Select Committee on Natural Disaster, Response, Recovery, and Rebuilding after reading from a statement that the company released hours earlier.

In that statement, Verizon said it would be introducing a "new plan" with truly unlimited data and "priority access" for first responders nationwide. "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," the company said. "Further, in the event of another disaster, Verizon will lift restrictions on public safety customers, providing full network access."

The executives spoke shortly after hearing from Santa Clara County Fire Chief Tony Bowden who said that his agency had experienced similar throttling in December 2017. The Santa Clara department had tried to address it with the Verizon accounts manager at the time.

See also: Verizon stops throttling more firefighters, plans unlimited data "with no caps"
California State Assembly plans hearing on Verizon throttling of firefighters' data

Previously on SN: Verizon Throttled Fire Department's "Unlimited" Data During California Wildfire

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  • (Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday August 26 2018, @07:46AM (2 children)

    by shortscreen (2252) on Sunday August 26 2018, @07:46AM (#726470) Journal

    What is the fire department doing with this mobile data? Would lack of connectivity hinder them from doing their job if there was a fire in an area with no service or a power outage? Or are they just using it to post videos on social media of shit burning?

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  • (Score: 2) by martyb on Sunday August 26 2018, @09:47AM

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 26 2018, @09:47AM (#726494) Journal
    From memory from reading articles on Ars Technica. This was a command center from which they would direct operations for thousands of personell and hundreds of pieces of equipment for the Mendocino fire in California -- [one of] the largest fires ever in California (or maybe in the US). They would receive reports from the field, often including video. They had twice before run into throttling from exceeding their bandwidth cap and had paid more to Verizon to change their plans so it would be truly unlimited, each time. Strangely enough, When they replaced the SIM card with a different one, plenty of bandwidth was available so any claim of throttling because of congestion on the network were not backed up by reality. IOW, the speed should have not been throttled, but because they had exceeded 25GB, Verizon throttled them anyway. (Pardon the phrasing & brevity -- typing on a cellphone.)
    --
    Wit is intellect, dancing.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Sunday August 26 2018, @10:50AM

    by Magic Oddball (3847) on Sunday August 26 2018, @10:50AM (#726503) Journal

    According to what I've read in the local paper, firefighting crews dealing with wildfires use live 'document-based' programs to keep track of the fire (where it has been, where it's going, factors affecting it), where different crews/resources are currently at, and to generally coordinate everything. It involves a heavy enough volume of data that the throttling rendered the software almost useless.