Jersey Telecom fined for emergency call network failure

JT said it was working to transform and modernise its network

Regulators have fined a Jersey phone company £380,000 after the collapse of the emergency services call network.

Calls to the fire, police or ambulance service were unavailable for most islanders for almost one hour in the middle of the night, on 20 September 2022.

Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA) said Jersey Telecom (JT) failed to meet its obligations.

JT said it was working on several programmes to transform and modernise its network.

'Critically important'

The JCRA said the company's emergency system had failed eight times since 2020 and the company had failed to make it resilient enough.

It concluded JT had "failed to take all reasonable steps, within its control, to ensure the integrity of its network".

This caused Jersey’s public emergency service calls to be unavailable to the public, for 57 minutes, from all landlines and the majority of mobiles.

"The performance and security of Jersey’s public emergency call service is critically important," it said.

"Therefore, in the interests of the safety and security of Jersey’s public, the authority determined it necessary and proportionate to issue a financial penalty."

Tim Ringsdore, CEO of the JCRA, said: "JT has co-operated with the authority throughout its investigation and continues to work constructively with the authority in relation to its ongoing programme of works."

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