Law enforcement agencies in four states were thrown into disarray after a massive 911 call that left millions unable to contact authorities late Wednesday.
Most power outages reported in Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota and Texas were restored by the evening.
So far, there is no indication that the outage was caused by a cyberattack or other malicious activity, law enforcement officials told NBC News on Thursday.
The outage appears to be related to Lumen Technologies, according to a communications and communications company spokesperson.
On Wednesday, some customers in Nevada, South Dakota and Nebraska said a third-party company unrelated to Lumen “physically cut fiber” during “pole installation” and “experienced power outages.” said Mark Molzen, a company spokesperson.
“All services were restored in about two and a half hours,” he said. Lumen does not provide 911 service in Texas, Molzen added.
“Our technicians worked hard to identify the problem and fix it as quickly as possible,” he said. “We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your understanding and cooperation.”
“When calling 911 in an emergency, it's important to be able to get through,” Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday. We have already begun an investigation into the 911 power outage across the state.”
Wednesday's outage comes on the heels of a major AT&T outage in February that left thousands of cars without service in multiple states and affected some 911 calls for several hours, but communications The operator said the outage was likely caused by a process error rather than a cyber attack.
local law enforcement South Dakota reported a statewide power outage Wednesday just before 7 p.m. local time (9 p.m. ET). Rapid City Police Department provided local residents with an alternate phone number to call first responders, and service was provided. restored About 2 hours later.
South Dakota Department of Public Safety said on wednesday In the evening, “texting 9-1-1 is available in most locations” as an option to contact authorities.
Sioux Falls Fire Department Deputy Chief Mike Gramlick said at a news conference Thursday that the outage was confirmed at 7:59 p.m. local time and was back to full capacity by 10:38 p.m.
“During the power outage period, Metro Communications received 112 calls for service,” he said, which could be reached through open phone numbers or text messages to 911.
Gramlick added: “For reference, Metro Communications typically receives 114 calls at the same time of day and week. To our knowledge, we have never experienced an outage of this magnitude or duration. .”
The city also issued a radio emergency alert to inform the public about the outage of its 911 system. Authorities say they don't know the cause, but a “service provider” is investigating.
In Douglas County, Nebraska, authorities echoed Lumen's statement about fiber cutting.
Lumen Technologies told Douglas County 911 that the cause was “a fiber cut, but did not specify the location of the damage,” Douglas County 911 Chief Kathy Allen told 911. Allen said the agency's services were “fully restored” by 4 a.m. Thursday.
In Nevada, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced at around 7:00 p.m. local time (10:00 p.m. ET) that “911 is experiencing a power outage and is currently unable to contact anyone.'' Local residents were urged to dial 911 on their mobile devices so dispatch staff could check and return the call, he said, adding that calls from landlines “are not working at this time.”
Calls were working again by 9pm (midnight ET). “All those who called during the power outage were recalled and provided assistance,” the ministry said.
Some government agencies said the problem lies with wireless carriers.
Sarpy County, Nebraska 911 Shared by X Wednesday night, “Some wireless carriers are unable to contact 911.” The problem was resolved after about 3 hours.
The Del Rio, Texas, police department wrote on social media Wednesday night that the issue was “with the carrier, not the City of Del Rio's systems.”
Juan Hernandez, the department's communications director, said Thursday morning that the problem appears to be with T-Mobile's service.
“Anyone who is a T-Mobile customer has had issues using their cell phone,” Hernandez said. “It wasn't anything on our end. There was no 911 failure, it was T-Mobile's fault. “It was a communication range problem.”
He said T-Mobile received a call from a customer Wednesday night about the issue, which was eventually resolved. There have been no reports of injuries or serious issues related to the service interruption.
However, the Chase County Sheriff's Office announced that “911 has been suspended throughout Nebraska” for all cell phone carriers except T-Mobile, and landlines could still reach 911.
An AT&T spokesperson said Thursday: “Our network is operating normally. There appears to be an issue with another carrier's network that may impact calls to 9-1-1. is.”
The news agency also said the disruption was “not a FirstNet issue,” referring to the national public safety broadband network commissioned by the government and built by AT&T. The network is overseen by the First Responder Network Authority, an independent agency within the Department of Commerce.
Retired Maj. Gen. David Simpson, who served as director of the FCC's Bureau of Public Safety and Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017, told NBC News that the current 911 service is not a nationwide system.
“There are more than 6,000 911 jurisdictions,” he said, adding that “equipment and budget decisions vary from state to state.”
Simpson said the current system has many levels of protection against outages, from installing more cables for route diversity to multiple carriers to updating equipment to multiple routers. “There's a lack of resilient backups,” he said.
