back to article Flubbed hardware fix knocked out 911 calls, T-Mobile US cops big fine

T-Mobile US will cough up a $17.5m (£11.2m) fine after a botched equipment upgrade cut off emergency 911 calls for millions of Americans for hours. In a settlement [PDF] with US watchdog the FCC, T-Mob today promised to pay up, and improve its network in America to prevent future outages. T-Mobile US made a $247m profit last …

  1. Wanting more

    $247m profit on a turnover of £29bn? yeah right

    I wish I could afford their accountants to reduce my tax bill too...

    1. The Axe

      Re: $247m profit on a turnover of £29bn? yeah right

      Sounds like you need an accountant to explain the difference between profit and turnover.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: $247m profit on a turnover of £29bn? yeah right

        We all understand the difference, but not why T Mobile only made less than 1% profit on turnover. Unless they have good accountants, or more likely, telecoms is a sunset industry.

  2. John Tserkezis

    Oh but never mind, if they go the way of Australia's NBN, your only way to make a call is either SIP, or other voip option. The "carriers" obligation to call assurance will be absolved along with our ability to make emergency calls when the Internet is down yet again.

    Better make sure your cellphone is charged.

  3. Mark 85

    One of these days...

    It would be interesting to find out if these fines are actually collected, in what form, and where does the money go. Seems we hear about mutli-million dollar fines be levied but then nada.....

    And yes, the fines have been infinitesimal compared to the companies that have been hit with them. <sarc> I'm thinking there's a PR type behind some of this in that the average person can't conceive of multi-millions so the fine must obviously be one that hurts the big business. </sarc>

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: One of these days...

      The fine comes under operating expenses so mostly is just knocked off the next tax bill.

      The demanded upgrades will be written off against R&D tax credits or infrastructure improvement grants - so if their accountants are on the ball they should make a profit out of this

  4. Ole Juul

    FCC has the right idea

    The FCC accused T-Mobile US of creating a public danger.

    Boy, you guys in the US are lucky the FCC even bothers to mention this sort of thing. In Canada Telus gets away with not providing service on a regular basis and the CRTC refuses to recognize it as even a problem.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    FCC and FTC are worthless

    Every now and then they fine some corrupt company to get in the news to justify their existence. Unfortunately the FCC and FTC who are charged with protecting U.S. consumers from evil, unscrupulous corrupt companies fails to do so unless it's in their personal best interest. That is why they allow outrageous crime in America to exist and only occasionally show up for a little publicity so they can request a budget increase. IMO it's disgraceful that the FTC and FCC have abdicated their sworn duties to protect the populace from criminal acts.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: FCC and FTC are worthless

      They abdicated nothing. It was taken from them by the Republicans over the decades the same way they crippled and defunded all the other watchdog agencies.

      'Cause regulations and safety is be socialeest commeenism!

  6. guyr

    0.83 % profilt margin

    "T-Mobile US made a $247m profit last year, from revenues of $29.56bn".

    This seems to be the biggest hidden story here. That's a pretty lousy profit margin. Compare to 20% for Intel and 23% for Microsoft for the last quarter. Apparently being a wireless carrier is not the place to be if you actually want to make money.

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