SAN FRANCISCO — As wildfires burned over a million acres in California this summer, one San Francisco Bay Area fire department used its cell-phone network to coordinate trucks and personnel from all over the state — until the department reached its data limit and its service provider slowed down data speeds.
This week, in documents submitted as evidence in a lawsuit over the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of net neutrality rules, Santa Clara County Fire Chief Tony Bowden said Verizon slowed down data speeds of devices essential to his department for coordination of firefighting resources.
Bowden said in the declaration, first reported by "Ars Technica", that the Santa Clara County Fire Department had an unlimited data plan with Verizon but internet service slowed to 1/200th normal speed after the SCCFD reached 25 gigabytes of data usage.
Verizon refused to lift the restrictions on data speeds until the fire department upgraded to a more expensive service plan, Bowden said.
Slowing down data speeds is a common practice among internet service providers known as throttling. Users can still access the cellular network for basic services like email or web browsing, but speeds are often too slow for activities like video streaming.
During a fire, the SCCFD deploys a vehicle called OES Incident Support Unit 5262, which uses "5-10 gigabytes of data per day via the Internet using a mobile router and wireless connection" to route resources where they're needed.
"The Internet has become an essential tool in providing fire and emergency response, particularly for events like large fires which require the rapid deployment and organization of thousands of personnel and hundreds of fire engines, aircraft, and bulldozers," Bowden wrote.
Bill Murphy, fire captain and public information officer at SCCFD, said fire fighters use "what seem like routine internet tools — email and live docs" to communicate resource status and resource commitments among the many different organizations involved in fighting the Mendocino Complex Fire and other large wildfires plaguing California.
These tools were rendered useless to the SCCFD while data was being throttled. The department was forced to use other agencies' internet service providers and some personnel had to use their personal devices for connectivity, Bowden said.
Verizon continued throttle data after SCCFD officials informed a company representative that the slow-down was impeding the fire department's ability to provide emergency response.
Emails included in the declaration show SCCFD staff communicating the issue with Verizon representatives starting June 29 and ending a month later.
The throttling stopped after the fire department paid Verizon for more data.
Bowden's declaration was filed as an addendum to a brief from 22 state attorneys general in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules.
Verizon spokesperson Heidi Flato said in a statement to USA TODAY that the issue is not related to net neutrality court proceedings. Verizon has a practice for removing data restrictions during emergency situations, but this case was a customer service error, Flato said.
"In this situation, we should have lifted the speed restriction when our customer reached out to us. This was a customer support mistake," the statement said.
