UK regulator Ofcom fines Vonage £700,000 for emergency call failures

Ofcom has today fined communications provider Vonage £700,000 for failing to ensure certain business customers could make calls to the emergency services.

Our rules require providers to take all necessary measures to ensure uninterrupted access to emergency organisations as part of any call services offered.

Being able to contact the emergency services is vital and Ofcom takes any breach of this nature very seriously.

Vonage notified Ofcom of an issue affecting its business customers’ ability to make emergency service calls between 23 October 2023 and 3 November 2023.

During this period, Vonage’s UK VoIP business customers were unable to connect to the emergency services when using desk phones.

Ofcom found that Vonage’s internal processes did not include adequate assessment of whether a software update, which caused the issue, had the potential to impact emergency calls. As a result, Vonage failed to carry out testing following the update, which led to its emergency call service failing.

Vonage also failed to have adequate monitoring procedures in place, which meant it did not have sufficient oversight of its network to enable it to identify an outage affecting emergency calls.

George Lusty, Ofcom’s Enforcement Director, said: “Being able to call the emergency services can mean the difference between life and death. It’s vital that telecoms providers take their responsibilities seriously and if they don’t, we’ll hold them to account. Vonage fell short on a number of levels, putting its customers at unacceptable risk.”