Topline
Communication services provider Lumen said on Thursday that the 911 call outages a number of states experienced Wednesday night was because of “a third-party company installing a light pole,” adding the outage was not related to Lumen’s services.
Key Facts
Lumen Global Issues Director Mark Molzen told Forbes on Thursday that customers in Nevada, South Dakota and Nebraska experienced the 911 call outages because of the light pole installation.
An outage was also reported in Texas, but Molzen said Lumen doesn’t provide 911 service in that state, and the Del Rio Police said on social media Wednesday it was due to an issue with “a major cellular carrier.”
In the Thursday statement, Lumen said it “restored all services in approximately two and a half hours” after technicians identified the issue and apologized for any inconvenience to customers.
The Federal Communications Commission said early Thursday it was “aware of reports of 911-related outages” and was investigating.
Key Background
Lumen is a communications services provider that offers 911 services to local communities across a number of states. Around 10 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, South Dakota reported 911 services were down statewide and provided alternate ways to contact dispatch for residents in Rapid City or Pennington County and said people were still able to text 911. State officials said services were restored about two hours later. In Nevada, Las Vegas police said on Facebook around 10 p.m. EDT “there is a 911 outage impacting your ability to contact us right now” and advised residents to dial 911 on a mobile device to receive a call back, or to text 911. Similar to South Dakota, the Las Vegas police announced service was back about two hours later. In Nebraska—where at least nine counties had outages—Lumen reportedly said the outage had to do with a “fiber cut,” according to local news station KETV, which reported service was restored Thursday morning.
Tangent
Though Lumen said this outage was from a light pole installation, there are increased concerns that 911 providers could be intentionally targeted. The Department of Homeland Security warned in a recent security assessment obtained by ABC News that ransomware attacks have “disrupted the networks of police department and 911 call center operations,” which can put dispatch services in trouble and force emergency services to manually operate.
