A former counselor to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman under President Obama said on Monday that the agency under President Trump “abdicated” its role in public safety, citing connectivity issues during last year’s massive California wildfires. 

“Verizon was throttling the Santa Clara Fire Department’s broadband, and there was eight months of communication between the fire department and Verizon, saying ‘look, we’re in the middle of this huge fire, at the time, was the biggest fire in California history, the Mendocino Complex Fire, please don’t throttle us. We need this to communicate with the public, and with other first responders,’ ” Gigi Sohn told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti on “Rising.” 

“Basically Verizon said if you pay us double of what we’ve been paying before, we’ll stop throttling you,” she added. “The fire department had no place to go, and that’s what’s really important here.” 

More at The Hill.