No, this isn’t about the huge nationwide outage that hit millions of Time Warner Cable customers earlier this week, but the timing couldn’t be more perfect. The FCC has announced that TWC must pay a $1.1 million penalty for failing to report a number of network outages to the Commission.

Earlier this week, the FCC revealed [PDF] that it was closing its investigation into TWC’s failure to meet its legal obligation to report outages of its VoIP phone service.

The rules require VoIP providers to report any outage that lasts at least 30 minutes if it potentially affects at least 900,000 user minutes of phone time and results in a complete loss of service; potentially affects any special offices and facilities (major military installations, key government facilities, nuclear power plants, and certain airports); or potentially affects a 911 special facility.

The company must also report these outages to the FCC within 24 hours of discovering one, followed by a Final Report within 30 days.

In September 2013, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB) notified TWC that it had failed to file a required Final Report in connection with one particular VoIP network outage. Further investigation by PSHSB revealed that TWC had failed to file a “substantial number” of Initial or Final reports for reportable outages.

TWC subsequently filed those reports, but only after being told that PSHSB was investigating. The company has admitted its shortcoming in this matter and has agreed to pay the $1.1 million civil penalty, while implementing a three-year compliance plan.

[via DSLreports.com]

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