Telecoms company fined £380k for ninth 999 incident since 2020

Monday 06 November 2023

JT has been fined £380,000 for an outage last year which left islanders unable to call emergency services for almost an hour – something a watchdog said could have had "potentially life-threatening consequences".

On 01:45 on 20 September 2022 for a period of 57 minutes, Jersey’s public emergency call service was unavailable from any landline or public pay phone in the island, as well as the majority of mobiles.

An investigation into the incident by the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority concluded that "JT failed to take all reasonable steps, within its control, to ensure the integrity of its network".

The regulator said it considered this licence condition contravention to be "most serious due to the length of time over which JT could and should have acted to uphold the reliability and resilience of its network".

In a document outlining its final decision, the JCRA said the ability to dial a number to call the emergency services is "key for the safety and security of Jersey’s citizens and visitors".

"Given this, the performance and security of Jersey’s public emergency call service is critical. Therefore, any service incident with an impact on Jersey’s public emergency call service is treated with the utmost seriousness," it said.

The JCRA described the incident as having "potentially life-threatening or personal security related consequences".

The regulatory authority has issued financial penalties and directions to JT for eight previous services incidents since January 2020 which have all had an impact on Jersey’s public emergency call service.

The JCRA said that "the amounts of these penalties have decreased overtime to reflect commitments given by JT to improve its infrastructure, process, and procedures, to ensure its network is resilient".

"However, this service incident demonstrates JT has not taken all reasonable steps within its control to ensure the resilience of its network despite the imposition of previous fines."

Tim Ringsdore, CEO of the JCRA said: “JT has cooperated with the Authority throughout its investigation and continues to work constructively with the Authority in relation to its ongoing programme of works.” 

A spokesperson from JT added: “JT is part way through several programmes of work which will transform and modernise Jersey’s networks providing best of class resilience and capability."

The £380,000 fine must be paid by JT within 28 days.

In response to the various 999 incidents in recent years, the JCRA announced in June that a new committee had been set up to monitor and improve the quality of Jersey's emergency call service line.