Verizon Gets Black Eye For Slowing Internet During Fire Emergency
Written by 991KBU on August 22, 2018
Firefighters in northern California are furious at Verizon …
Santa Clara County firefighters were dangerously hobbled by poor internet service while they were helping battle the monstrous Mendocino Complex fire in July.
Santa Clara County sent a mobile communications truck up there … a dispatch center on wheels.
And it relies on Verizon internet service.
Santa Clara County’s fire chief contends in a federal court filing that they paid for an unlimited data plan… but Verizon “throttled” the data flow because Verizon officials said it had exceeded its plan limit.
The fire chief says the data slowdown meant “resources could be deployed to the wrong fire, the wrong part of a fire, or fail to be deployed at all.” … according to court filing obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle and KQED’s California Report.
The fire department demanded that Verizon “remove any data throttling on (their truck) immediately.”
Verizon responded by suggesting the department upgrade its service plan.
Verizon admits that it made mistakes in handling the issue during the fire fight.
“We should have lifted the speed restriction when our customer reached out to us,” Flato wrote. “This was a customer support mistake.”
But this raises the question … what happens to normal internet users who hit the top of their data limit … just as brushfires approach.
Please hold for customer service????
