BT has been fined £17.5m after a network failure meant 14,000 emergency calls were unable to made.

The company connects 999 and 112 calls in the UK and provides relay services for deaf and speech-impaired people.

On Sunday 25 June 2023, BT experienced a network fault that affected its ability to connect calls to emergency services between 06:24 and 16:56.

During the incident, nearly 14,000 call attempts – from 12,392 different callers – were unsuccessful, though there were no reports of serious harm as a result.

The incident also caused disruption to text relay calls, which meant people with hearing and speech difficulties were unable to make any calls, including to friends, family, businesses and services.

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An investigation was opened by Ofcom, which found that BT did not have sufficient warning systems in place for when this kind of incident occurs, nor did it have adequate procedures for promptly assessing the severity, impact and likely cause of any such incident or for identifying mitigating actions. 

The regulator identified three key stages in the incident.

In the first, between 06:24 and 07:33, the emergency call handling system was disrupted by what was later found to be a configuration error in a file on BT's server.

In the second stage, from 07.33 to 8.50, the company looked to switch to its' disaster recovery platform but this was unsuccessful due to human error and the incident grew from affecting some calls to a total outage of the system.

Ofcom found "this was a result of instructions being poorly documented, and the team being unfamiliar with the process".

From 8.50 until 16.56 the rate of unsuccessful calls decreased once traffic was migrated successfully to the disaster recovery platform. However, usual service was not fully restored initially as the disaster recovery platform struggled with demand.

The regulator ruled that BT did not have sufficient warning systems in place for when this kind of incident occurs, nor did it have adequate procedures for promptly assessing the severity, impact and likely cause of any such incident or for identifying mitigating actions.

It further found that BT’s disaster recovery platform had insufficient capacity and functionality to deal with a level of demand that might reasonably be expected.

While no confirmed reports of serious harm to members of the public were documented, "the potential degree of harm was extremely significant" and BT was fined £17.5m.

Suzanne Cater, Ofcom’s director of enforcement, said: “Being able to contact the emergency services can mean the difference between life and death, so in the event of any disruption to their networks, providers must be ready to respond quickly and effectively.

“In this case, BT fell woefully short of its responsibilities and was ill-prepared to deal with such a large-scale outage, putting its customers at unacceptable risk.

“Today’s fine sends a broader warning to all firms -– if you’re not properly prepared to deal with disruption to your networks, we’ll hold you to strict account on behalf of consumers.”

Ofcom said: "BT self-reported the incident, in line with its obligations, and provided regular updates. BT has also cooperated fully with our investigation and has provided Ofcom with information in a timely manner when requested."

A BT Group spokesperson said: “We take great pride in underpinning the national 999 service and recognise the critical importance our infrastructure plays. The level of disruption to the service on Sunday 25 June last year has never been seen before and we are sincerely sorry for the distress caused.

"We accept the specific points raised in Ofcom’s findings, and have put in place comprehensive measures to prevent this series of events reoccurring and improve end-to-end resilience of the system as a whole.

“While no technology is 100% resilient, we have built a highly robust network with multiple layers of protection to connect the public to blue light services in their time of need. We take our responsibility to the emergency services and the public seriously, and on this occasion, we fell short of our own high standards for the 999 service.”