Broadband provider fined over 999 calls fault

Gigaclear said it "deeply regretted" the fault

A broadband provider which failed to provide accurate location data for 999 calls has been fined £122,500.

Communications regulator Ofcom said Abingdon-based Gigaclear gave faulty information to emergency services in 948 calls between January 2022 and March 2024.

However, the regulator said no callers were reported to have suffered significant harm.

Gigaclear said it "deeply regretted" the issue, which it had already corrected by the time it alerted Ofcom in April 2024.

Announcing the fine, Ofcom said call location information could "mean the difference between life and death".

It said Gigaclear did not test its systems, which had been wrongly configured by a third-party supplier.

The firm also failed to appropriately investigate a customer complaint relating to the issue, the regulator said.

In a statement, the provider said: "Gigaclear deeply regrets the historic configuration issue with our VoIP [Voice over Internet Protocol] service.

"We have undertaken a full post-incident review to implement the learnings from this incident and put in place processes to ensure that no similar issues arise again."

Gigaclear operates a full fibre broadband network in rural areas across central and southern England.