Multistate 911 outage shows fragility of systems, experts say
A major 911 outage Wednesday showed the urgent need for increased modernization and regulation of the emergency system, experts in telecommunications and public safety told NBC News.
A major 911 outage Wednesday showed the urgent need for increased modernization and regulation of the emergency system, experts in telecommunications and public safety told NBC News.
On Thursday, Lumen Technologies, a telecommunications company based in Louisiana, said in a statement that "some customers in Nevada, South Dakota, and Nebraska experienced an outage due to a third-party company installing a light pole — unrelated to our services."
The outage left millions in multiple states without emergency access to authorities for about 2½ hours.
"Our techs identified the issue and worked hard to fix it as quickly as possible," Lumen said. "We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding."
Harold Feld, senior vice president of Public Knowledge, a nonprofit public interest group that focuses on telecommunications and internet law, said a single pole should not be able to disable 911 in multiple states.
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