Ofcom has today fined broadband network provider Gigaclear £122,500 for failing to provide accurate and reliable caller location information to emergency services.
Under Ofcom’s rules (called the General Conditions), when someone calls 112 or 999, their telecoms provider must – to the extent it is technically feasible – make accurate and reliable information about the caller’s location available to the emergency organisation handling the call, at the time it is answered.[1]
Caller location information is vital, as it may be needed to ensure an emergency response is dispatched to the right place.
Gigaclear notified Ofcom of various issues with its caller location information for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls between January 2022 and March 2024.
What our investigation found
During this period, when any Gigaclear VoIP customer called 999 or 112, inaccurate information about the caller’s location was made available to the emergency services. This affected a total of 948 calls.
We found that Gigaclear failed to ensure its third-party supplier had correctly configured the systems that provide caller location information to emergency organisations. Gigaclear also failed to carry out effective testing of caller location information, which would have likely alerted it to the issues prior to launching the service, and while the service was live.
Additionally, Gigaclear missed an earlier opportunity to identify the issue by failing to appropriately investigate a customer complaint relating to the issue, and closed the case without fixing the problem.
Financial penalty
While no members of the public reportedly experienced significant harm, we take compliance with these requirements extremely seriously. We have concluded that Gigaclear has breached our rules, and we have fined the company £122,500.[2]
Gigaclear has reconfigured its systems and taken remedial action to prevent future errors.
George Lusty, Ofcom’s Enforcement Director, said: “Providing the emergency services with accurate location data can mean the difference between life and death. So it’s vital that telecoms companies set up their systems correctly and test them thoroughly to make sure this happens.
“We won’t hesitate to hold companies to account, and Gigaclear fell short on a number of basic levels, putting its customers at unacceptable risk for a prolonged period of time.”
We will publish the full findings from our investigation shortly.
Notes to editors
- General Conditions A3.5 and A3.6(a).
- Gigaclear must pay the fine within four weeks of this decision, and it will then be passed on to HM Treasury. It includes a 30% reduction as a result of Gigaclear’s admission of liability and agreement to settle the case.