Nebraska experiences 911 service outage

Chase County was among several Nebraska counties to experience an outage in its 911 service. The Chase County Sheriff’s Office reported that the service was down for all mobile carriers except T-Mobile. Landlines were also unaffected by the disruption. CCSO provided the number for a non-emergency line for those who needed emergency services during the outage. 911 services in Chase County were eventually restored and are currently working properly.
Several other counties in Nebraska reported 911 service disruptions, many reporting various problems. Lumen Technologies, the telecommunications company who is the 911 service provider for Nebraska, reported that the problem was due to a fiber being cut when a third-party company was installing a light pole. They did not provide the location of the incident or any further information.
Outages were also reported in Nevada, Texas, and South Dakota. Officials in South Dakota reported a statewide service disruption. Las Vegas, Nevada also experienced an outage. Neither landline nor mobile phones were able to dial into 911. Law enforcement, however, was able to see attempted phone calls and they returned all calls that were made. Law enforcement officials in Del Rio, Texas reported that their outage affected only T-Mobile customers. Most of these disruptions were corrected within an hour or two. The Lumen Technologies fiber was likely the cause of the outages in both Nevada and South Dakota but officials believe that the outage in Texas was due to a problem with T-Mobile, specifically. Lumen does not provide 911 services in Texas.
It seems that all reported outages have been restored. The Federal Communications Commission–responsible for regulating interstate communications–is currently investigating the disruptions but has not provided any report as of yet.
This outage in conjunction with the outage in August of 2023—among others—has some concerned about the security of the nations 911 services. In response to the disruption in August of last year, the Nebraska Senate made moves to improve 911 infrastructure and accountability. Two bills with goals of accomplishing these changes were introduced in January of this year but have yet to pass.