The Santa Clara County Fire Department had its Verizon wireless access
throttled to 0.5% of normal, in the midst of its fight against the
California wildfires; Verizon said that the firefighters had been using
too much bandwidth while they risked their lives racing to save the
county from being engulfed in flames.
Verizon demanded significant cash payment to restore the firefighters’
service and would not do so until the paperwork had been signed. The
action by Verizon has been appended to the states’ lawsuit against the FCC over its dismantling of Net Neutrality rules.
The fire department says that the delay created by Verizon’s demand put
lives at risk. Verizon has apologized, saying it mishandled the
incident.
