Posted on 08/22/2018 2:52:09 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Just days after the massive Mendocino Complex Fire ignited in Northern California, fire officials were getting desperate in their emails to Verizon Wireless.
As Santa Clara County firefighters mobilized, they discovered that Internet access had slowed to a crawl on the vehicle they were using to coordinate their response. "Please work with us," Daniel Farrelly, a systems analyst for the Santa Clara Fire Department, entreated the company in an email dated July 30. "All we need is a plan that does not offer throttling or caps of any kind."
A few hours later, the Verizon accounts manager suggested they get an upgrade.
The fledgling blaze swelled into the largest wildfire in state history — and now, nearly a month later, the email exchange has resurfaced in an entirely different venue: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Santa Clara Fire Chief Anthony Bowden included the emails in his declaration supporting a petition challenging the Federal Communications Commission's decision to repeal Obama-era regulations known as net neutrality — which barred service providers from blocking or slowing Internet access, or speeding it up for a higher charge.
FCC chief Ajit Pai has called net neutrality "heavy-handed" and says its rollback is a return to the "light-touch regulatory vision" of the Internet's infancy in the 1990s.
But Bowden, along with more than two dozen states and local government entities, laid out his case for why the repeal actually represents a threat to public safety. In his addendum to a brief filed Monday, noted first by Ars Technica, Bowden said Verizon reduced its data rates to just one two-hundredth of what was usual — and did so at a critical time for the emergency response.
"Dated or stale information regarding the availability or need for resources can slow response times and render them far less effective. Resources could be deployed to the wrong fire, the wrong part of a fire, or fail to be deployed at all," Bowden said. "Even small delays in response translate into devastating effects, including loss of property, and, in some cases, loss of life."
The slow data speeds that befell Santa Clara firefighters late last month were eventually rectified — but only after paying a price, Bowden added.
"While Verizon ultimately did lift the throttling, it was only after County Fire subscribed to a new, more expensive plan," he said in his declaration.
In the weeks that followed the email exchange, the Mendocino Complex Fire has consumed more than 406,000 acres — or an area roughly the size of Houston. As of Wednesday, the fire was just 74 percent contained.
Verizon acknowledged having made a "mistake," but a company spokesperson told NPR that "the situation has nothing to do with net neutrality or the current proceeding in court."
The issue, Verizon explained, was that the department had chosen a plan that, while offering unlimited data, slowed speeds considerably once the customer had exceeded a certain amount before the end of the billing cycle.
"Regardless of the plan emergency responders choose, we have a practice to remove data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations. We have done that many times, including for emergency personnel responding to these tragic fires," the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to NPR.
"In this situation, we should have lifted the speed restriction when our customer reached out to us. This was a customer support mistake."
Santa Clara County officials were not buying that explanation.
"Verizon's throttling has everything to do with net neutrality — it shows that the ISPs will act in their economic interests, even at the expense of public safety," Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams told Ars Technica on Thursday. "That is exactly what the Trump Administration's repeal of net neutrality allows and encourages."
Williams' comment echoes the skepticism voiced by the government petitioners.
"The Commission acted arbitrarily and capriciously in crediting industry promises to refrain from harmful practices, notwithstanding
substantial record evidence showing that [broadband Internet service] providers have abused and will abuse their gatekeeper roles in ways that harm consumers and threaten public safety," they said in Monday's brief. And to Bowden, the real-life stakes of that decision are plain.
"In light of our experience," he wrote, "County Fire believes it is likely that Verizon will continue to use the exigent nature of public safety emergencies and catastrophic events to coerce public agencies into higher cost plans ultimately paying significantly more for mission critical service — even if that means risking harm to public safety during negotiations."
Just wait until Facebook and Twitter crash for an extended period of time. It’ll be the Apocalypse.
When a gas leak caused an explosion in my downtown in March, 2009 (Bozeman, MT) it leveled nearly an entire block and Verizon STEPPED UP BIG TIME while the fire blazed for almost an entire week.
Verizon brought in extra mobile towers to coordinate the extra voice/DATA needs.
I took two days to shut-off the gas which complicated it issue...
Bozeman has 12 million gallons of water storage, all gravity fed, and used 10 million plus fighting the fire.
I am NOT a Verizon customer but they really earned my respect after learning of their efforts and help.
I’m sure it’s a local issue...or NPR BS.
I know what to do! Plow all the logging road in and plant them over and place large obstacles and dig large ditches to keep people out. Charge large sums of money so people quit harvesting timber kill and removing forest floor litter. Don’t maintain fire breaks and make rules that supersede building codes can not be protected by land owners so it is harder to fight fires.
“If the government has plans with “unlimited data” then the data should be unlimited with no throttling. “
They didn’t. And they had a hard cap.
In fact their account manager warned them of this issue the very month BEFORE this incident and they took no action to adjust the plan they purchased.
I already dumped Verizon over a year ago!!! They became SO EXPENSIVE it was just unreasonable!!!! I really hated to do it because they carried OANN and my new carrier does not!!!
Cal Fire (was CDF) used to have the best radio network in the state. That they have gone to trusting cell phones is probably not a good thing.
Well, if a Verizon facility in California has a fire I suggest that the fire department ask them to upgrade or else the response will take 200 times longer than usual.
No, the FM wavelength that radios use is too crowded, the cellular thing sprang up in the late 90’s. I liked my fire radio 10 times better.
My plan with US Cellular does that. I get one gig in throttled after that it’s throttled. You are trying to force me on a more expensive plan.
Apparently, Verizon and Comcast did similar actions with the Wine Country Fires last October.
Maybe instead of suing PG&E, the internet providers, who play games, need to be sued or brought into court.
Let these providers face a couple of hundred of irate people, who lost their homes, pets and ??? due to their game playing during serious crisis times.
“”Free” service doesn’t pay the bills.”
And it doesn’t keep my pension check coming.:-)
.
On Sunday morning in Birmingham AL you could hear Atlanta GA dispatches on the old FM systems which brought up the question:”which Engine Company 3 city is which?” Meanwhile granny and pop’s house is burning(no, this is not the lead in for the old Policeman joke about,”I think he knows you Granny.”
Heck, at least they got a snail’s pace. Many times I can’t get anything.
Yeah...so what? Internet is NOT free. You want more, you pay more. Can you sue a bartender for "throttling" your whiskey after you only handed him $3? Ridiculous.
“””How were forest fire communications managed in the days **before** the Internet? It really wasn’t that long ago.”””
Verizon is one scum sucking outfit that can’t go down the eternal toilet fast enough to suit me.
“Because nobody ever put out a fire without fast internet.”
Ever stood on a mountain top and tried to download the latest topographical fire maps on a throttled phone?
Oh God ! will that day/s be GREAT or what ? ! !
Here's hoping they both join Verizon on the ride down that eternal toilet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.