Competition Authority launches investigation into JT outage

Jersey's Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA) has launched an independent investigation into Jersey Telecom's network outage two weeks ago.On 12 July, JT's landline, mobile and online services blacked out for six hours, between 7pm and 1am.The island's 999 emergency number was also affected when dialled from a landline.JT have themselves described the incident as "the worst in JT's 132 year history", although they feel an internal investigation has helped them to clearly identify the problem and ensure it will never happen again.The cause of the outage was an incorrect time in a clock on the network, which caused a piece of software in one of the switches to go wrong and turn off.

When the outage happened, a separate investigation was already underway into other system failures affecting the 999 call service, following reports of some call failures during April and May. This new investigation will seek to clarify whether there was a connection between previous issues and the outage. JT say the incidents were completely unrelated.  

The investigation will be undertaken by Cognitio Consultants, who specialise in telecoms and infrastructure. The cost of the investigation, expected to be in the region of £120,000 will be borne by JT, under the terms of its Operator Licence.