FCC Investigating 911 Cell Service Outages
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating outages that impacted 911 call service in at least four states. Credit - Getty Images
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating a day after outages impacted 911 call service in at least four states.
Outages affected citizens’ ability to call 911 statewide in South Dakota as well as in parts of Nevada, Texas and Nebraska for hours on Wednesday evening, in some cases leaving people without the ability to immediately connect to 911.
“We are aware of reports of 911-related outages and we are currently investigating,” the FCC posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
In Texas, Del Rio Police Department blamed its outage on an unnamed cell service provider, writing in a post on Facebook: “We are aware of an outage with a major cellular carrier affecting the ability to reach 911. This issue is with the carrier and not the City of Del Rio systems. Our emergency services remain operational.”
Communication supervisor Juan Hernandez tells TIME Thursday the issue was not with the department’s 911 operator or service but with certain people in the community whose cell phones weren’t able to call out to 911. When asked what cell service provider had issues, he said: “I believe it was T-Mobile.”
However, Chase County in Nebraska reported on Wednesday that “911 is down across the State of Nebraska again for all cellular carriers except T-Mobile. Landlines can still get through to 911.” The county reported services were back up and running 12 hours later.
TIME reached out to T-Mobile and the FCC for comment.
Elsewhere in Nebraska, Dundy County flagged problems around the same time, saying that “the service provider for 911 services in the state of Nebraska was working diligently to restore service.” Sarpy County 911 reported that “some wireless carriers are not able to reach 911” and said the issue was resolved roughly three and a half hours later.
In South Dakota, 911 service was interrupted statewide, although texting 911 was still operating in most locations, the state’s Department of Public Safety said. Rapid City police reported 911 services were down and advised residents in their city or county to call other numbers instead. Dispatchers could still see the phone number of people trying to call 911, and each attempt got a call-back from a dispatcher. Service was restored around two hours later.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reported a 911 outage at around 7 p.m. Text was still an option, but 911 calls from landlines and calls to its non-emergency line were impacted. Police instructed people to dial 911 on a cell phone and dispatchers would still be able to see the number and call back right away. Service was restored by 9 p.m.
Also in Texas, the Kilgore Police Department reported its system was intermittently down “due to area wide 911 issues” and urged residents to call another number in an emergency.
The Department of Homeland Security has warned of the possibility of cyberattacks on 911 infrastructure, but law enforcement officials told NBC News that there’s no indication the recent outages were caused by a cyberattack.
Contact us at letters@time.com.
