Widespread 911 Outages Hit Four States
April 18th, 2024Via: Independent:
At least four states experienced widespread 911 service outages on Wednesday evening, three of which were impacted by a disruption with a telecommunications company that provides 911 services.
Law enforcement agencies areas of Nebraska and Nevada announced that outages had occurred in multiple cities and counties, with multiple authorities in South Dakota reporting the issue as “statewide.” Multiple Texas cities also reported unrelated outages. Police departments in the affected states all reiterated similar issues that 911 calls appeared to be down on cellular carriers and in some areas, on landlines, but texts to the emergency number were still operational in many areas.
It was later revealed Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota saw outages because a third party installed a light pole that disrupted the network of Lumen Technologies, which provides 911 communication services to the states. All services were restored within two-and-a-half hours, according to Mark Molzen, global issues direction for Lumen Technologies.
