CenturyLink fined $123K for communication outage

OLYMPIA – State regulators have fined CenturyLink $123,000 for failing to notify state officials on time about a communications outage last fall that left thousands of customers with intermittent 911 service.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission said Thursday that the company had an outage in Klickitat and Skamania County 911 Emergency Services for two days in November 2016 but failed to notify regulators on time as required by state rules.

The commission previously penalized CenturyLink $173,000 for inadequately responding to a 10-day outage in the San Juan Islands in 2013. At the time, the commission suspended all but $50,000 of that fine for one year if the company met certain conditions. It said the remaining $123,210 fine would be imposed in the event the company didn’t notify customers, the commissioners or others.

CenturyLink provides 911 services for the state’s 7 million residents.

A message left with a spokeswoman Friday was not immediately returned.