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Bellevue-based T-Mobile fined $19.5 million for outage that included failed 911 calls

There was a complete failure of more than 23,000 911 calls because of the outage.

Credit: AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

This photo shows a T-Mobile store in Herald Square, Monday April 30, 2018, in New York. Consumer advocacy groups are worried that T-Mobile's bid for Sprint could lead to higher prices on cellphone plans.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Wireless carrier T-Mobile is paying $19.5 million in a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission over a 12-hour nationwide outage in June 2020 that resulted in thousands of failed 911 calls.

The FCC said Tuesday that as part of the settlement, T-Mobile will also commit to improving communications of outages to emergency call centers.

The agency says there was a complete failure of more than 23,000 911 calls because of the outage. The company has paid penalties for outages that prevented 911 calls before.

T-Mobile US has headquarters based in Bellevue, Wash.