The communications watchdog has launched an investigation into BT after technical faults hit the 999 emergency call service on Sunday.
Ofcom said it would look into the incident to find out whether the telecoms company failed to comply with its regulatory duties. Police forces, ambulance services and fire and rescue services across the UK asked people not to phone 999 on Sunday morning due to a “technical fault”.
BT, which manages the 999 phone system, apologised “sincerely” for the UK-wide disruption and said the issues were resolved by Monday. BT had used a backup system while it worked to resolve the problems.
The government revealed on Monday that it was informed by BT about the problems nearly three hours after they first hit the system at 6.30am.
Viscount Camrose, a minister at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said a “technical issue” with the service was reported to the government at 9.20am on Sunday. He told the House of Lords that an inquiry would look into the speed of the BT notification.
“I understand that the government were informed as quickly as was practically possible. One area that the inquiry will look into is whether that should or could have been faster,” he said.
London’s Metropolitan police had warned on Sunday that many 999 calls were not connecting and urged people to phone 101, while by midday on Sunday multiple services including the Essex fire service, South Wales police, Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland were still experiencing problems, despite others reporting a return to normal.
Under Ofcom’s rules, BT and other network providers must take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency organisations as part of the call services they offer.
They also must do what they can to prevent and prepare for systems breaking down or technical faults.
“Our investigation will seek to establish the facts surrounding the incident and examine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that BT has failed to comply with its regulatory obligations,” the telecoms regulator said.
A BT spokesperson said the company was nearing the end of its own internal investigation and it would share the findings with the government, Ofcom and the emergency services on Thursday. BT will also release the report publicly.
BT said the investigation will “examine the technical aspects of what triggered Sunday’s incident, the process of moving over to the back-up system and the timings of communications to the emergency services, Ofcom and government”.
