Verizon Issues Statement On California Wildfires, Hurricane In Hawaii

(RTTNews) - Verizon Communications (VZ) said that, in supporting first responders in the Mendocino fire, the company didn't live up to its own promise of service and performance excellence when process failed some first responders on the line, battling a massive California wildfire.

Earlier this week, there were reports that Verizon was slowing California firefighters' data speeds during a wildfire crisis, there was a predictable outrage over the company's actions. In a legal brief filed by Santa Clara County fire officials against the FCC's net neutrality repeal, emergency responders explained how Verizon dropped their connection to a crawl, even after being informed of the emergency. The company didn't restore the speeds until the fire department paid for a better plan.

Mike Maiorana, Verizon Senior Vice President of Public Sector said today, "In supporting first responders in the Mendocino fire, we didn't live up to our own promise of service and performance excellence when our process failed some first responders on the line, battling a massive California wildfire. For that, we are truly sorry. And we're making every effort to ensure that it never happens again."

Maiorana noted that as of Thursday, Verizon removed all speed cap restrictions for first responders on the west coast and in Hawaii to support current firefighting and Hurricane Lane efforts. Further, in the event of another disaster, Verizon will lift restrictions on public safety customers, providing full network access.

Maiorana said that the company has been working closely with mission critical first responders to refine its service plan to better meet their unique needs. As a result, the company is introducing a new plan that will feature unlimited data, with no caps on mobile solutions and automatically includes priority access. It will provide full details when it introduce the plan next week, and it will make it easy to upgrade service at no additional cost.