A 911 service outage that affected multiple states, including Nebraska, Wednesday night has been resolved.
But it adds another chapter to a saga that has left 911 officials seeking answers and has sparked an investigation from the Federal Communications Commission.
The outage began when a contractor was installing a light pole and cut a fiber-optic cable owned by telecommunications company and 911 service infrastructure provider Lumen in the Kansas City area. The cut knocked out 911 services for many dispatch centers in Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota. There were no reports of 911 outages in the Kansas City area.
The light pole work was unrelated to Lumen’s services, Lumen spokesman Mark Molzen said. Once the cut was identified, Molzen said technicians worked to fix the cable and restore service “as quickly as possible,” which took about 2½ hours.
In Douglas County, 911 officials became aware around 9:20 p.m. Wednesday of 911 calls not coming through to dispatchers. Thanks to the RapidSOS system, dispatchers could see where 911 calls were being made and called those people back. During the outage, the county resorted to giving out the 911 center’s non-emergency number, 402-444-5802.
“We don’t believe there were any calls that were missed,” said Kyle Kramer, technical manager for Douglas County 911, at a press conference Thursday.
Callers on some wireless carriers, including T-Mobile, and some landlines were greeted with “fast busy signals,” Kramer said.
The affected wireless carriers were different depending upon the area, Kramer said. Verizon callers in Douglas County could still make 911 calls while Verizon customers in Buffalo County, which includes Kearney, could not.
Lumen told officials most of the service had been restored by 11 p.m. Wednesday. In a statement, 911 Director Kathy Allen said the county dispatch center ran into some issues but 911 service was fully restored by 4 a.m. Thursday.
Other Nebraska counties affected by the outage include Sarpy, Lincoln, Dundy and Howard.
The outage also affected 911 services in southern Nevada, including Las Vegas and South Dakota.
The South Dakota Department of Public Safety said in statement Wednesday the service interruption occurred throughout the state. The agency noted texting to 911 was working in most locations and people could still reach local law enforcement through non-emergency lines.
Officials in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, called the outage “unprecedented” Thursday.
“To our knowledge, we have never experienced an outage of this magnitude or duration,” Sioux Falls Fire Department Division Chief Mike Gramlick said.
That was not the case in Nebraska.
On Aug. 31, two cuts to fiber-optic cables owned by Lumen knocked out 911 phone service to almost 60% of the state’s 911 centers for around 10 to 12 hours, including Douglas, Sarpy, Washington and Dodge Counties.
That incident has been the subject of an investigation by the Nebraska Public Service Commission, including a hearing in January. The commission has been engaged with national 911 networking experts and has submitted additional questions to carriers, according to a spokeswoman.
Kramer said it’s possible 911 outages in previous eras could have occurred about as frequently decades ago when calls came over copper phone wires, causing outages to be more localized. Due to the interconnected nature of the modern world, individual outages now occur over a wider area, he said.
“Large networks usually have some aggregation point and these aggregation points can be a high risk,” Kramer said. “I think that’s why you’re seeing larger outages. I don’t think you’re necessarily seeing more.”
In Del Rio, Texas, callers also had difficulties making 911 calls. That outage was limited to a cellular carrier and was unrelated to Lumen. Lumen is not a 911 service provider in Texas, Molzen said.
This report contains material from the Associated Press.