Ofcom is to impose a £122,500 fine (about $164,000) on UK broadband provider Gigaclear for failing to deliver accurate caller location information when customers called the emergency services.

Britain's telecoms regulator says the rural fiber operator notified it of issues with the caller location information provided for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls made between January 2022 and March 2024.

During this period, when any [1]Gigaclear VoIP customer called 999 or 112 (the Europe-wide emergency number), the network provided either inaccurate information or no caller location to the emergency services. This is understood to have affected 948 calls.

[2]

Ofcom notes that Gigaclear had failed to ensure a third-party supplier had correctly configured the systems that provide caller location information to emergency organizations, and also failed to carry out testing of its operation, which would have alerted it to the problem sooner.

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Perhaps more worrying, Gigaclear failed to appropriately investigate a customer complaint regarding this matter, and closed the case without fixing it.

The rules require telecoms operators to provide accurate information (to the extent it is technically feasible) about a caller's location when someone phones the emergency services, as this information could be vital in dispatching a response to the correct location.

[5]

Although Gigaclear reported the troubles itself and no members of the public are known to have experienced significant harm, Ofcom says it is handing down the fine because compliance with these requirements needs to be taken extremely seriously.

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[8]IBM swoops in to rescue UK Emergency Services Network after Motorola shown the door

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In a statement sent to The Register , Gigaclear says it deeply regretted the historic configuration issue with its VoIP service, as described in Ofcom's decision published today.

"Gigaclear is committed to providing high-quality service to its customers and maintaining full compliance with all regulatory obligations and we apologize for having fallen short of the high standard which we strive to maintain."

By the time Gigaclear self-reported the issue to Ofcom in April 2024, the problem had already been fixed. Gigaclear says it has undertaken a full post-incident review to ensure it does not happen again.

"At all times before and after the issue was fixed, all emergency calls placed by our VoIP customers were successfully connected. We are not aware of any actual harm to customers as a result of the issue, but we acknowledge the seriousness of the error and the importance of ensuring accurate caller location information is available to emergency services," the company told us.

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Ofcom Enforcement Director George Lusty warned that providing the emergency services with accurate location data can mean the difference between life and death.

"We won't hesitate to hold companies to account, and Gigaclear fell short on a number of basic levels, putting its customers at unacceptable risk for a prolonged period of time," he said. ®

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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/home_office_esn/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/08/uk_police_dangle_75_million/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/17/ibm_esn_contract/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/25/uk_police_lfr_tender/

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