Latest news with #911outage
CBS News
22-07-2025
- CBS News
Pennsylvania 911 outage was caused by operating system issue, not cyberattack, preliminary report says
The Pennsylvania 911 call system outage earlier this month was caused by a technical issue, not a cyberattack, according to a preliminary report. People calling 911 in Pennsylvania experienced intermittent disruptions on July 12. The update Tuesday from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency says the problem stemmed from an operating system issue with Next Generation 911, which processes and routes 911 calls from phones to 911 centers. "As soon as the intermittent outages started, our vendors and partner public safety organizations began to investigate the cause and take steps to resolve the issue," said Jeff Boyle, PEMA's executive deputy director. "We activated the Emergency Alert System and issued Wireless Emergency Alerts as a precautionary measure to notify everyone in Pennsylvania of the issue and to follow county-based back up plans should they not be able to reach the 911 centers by calling the traditional three-digit phone number." When people call 911 in Pennsylvania, their calls first go to a data processing center, where Next Generation Core Services determines their location and sends the call to the proper local 911 call center, according to the update. Officials are working on a more detailed analysis of the incident and plans to improve the system, the update says. "Our team got on it immediately yesterday, restored 911 capabilities relatively quickly and also put out guidance on what folks should do in that interim, I thought they handled it really well, they worked closely with our county officials," Gov. Josh Shapiro said at the time. The agency suggests residents save the phone number for their county's non-emergency 911 line in their phones in case of another disruption. Those numbers are available here.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Pennsylvania officials report statewide 911 disruption
Several counties are reporting a statewide intermittent 911 outage. Pennsylvania residents received alerts saying that residents experiencing issues contacting 911 are asked to contact their local 911 center on non-emergency lines for the time being. Bob Dowd, director of the Lebanon County Department of Emergency Services, said Lebanon County residents should call 717-708-2746 for assistance until the problem is resolved. The York County Office of Emergency Management reported on Facebook that there is a disruption in the 911 phone system. "York County 911 is still handling calls, which are being re-routed to non-emergency numbers," officials said. "Because of this, there may be a delay in the calls being answered." York residents can call 717-854-5571 for assistance until the problem is resolved. The cause of the outage was not released as of Friday afternoon. This is an ongoing story. Please check back for updates. Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ or on X at @DAMattToth. This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Pennsylvania officials report statewide 911 issue
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Emergency 911 systems go down in Pennsylvania
'Pennsylvania is experiencing a statewide intermittent 911 outage,' a statewide alert reads. 'Individuals experiencing issues contacting 911 are asked to contact their local 911 Center on their non-Emergency lines. 'Check your counties social media and website for more information.' The alert is being pushed to people's smartphones across multiple counties. 'We are working with technical experts to resolve the issue and restore service as quickly as possible,' the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency shared on X. The agency is also encouraging those in the commonwealth to check their county's social media and website for more information. Pennsylvanians flooded social media with the alerts sent to their phones, hope to warn others that they may have been left to fend for themselves.
CTV News
05-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
Bell, Telus continue to cast blame for 911 outage in Manitoba
Bell and Telus continue to spar over who is responsible for a 911 outage earlier this year. Two of the largest telecom companies in Canada continue to point fingers at each other over a 911 outage that left dozens of Manitobans unable to reach emergency services, including the family of a man who suffered a fatal heart attack. The outage took place on March 22 and lasted for 38 hours and 45 minutes. Telus has said 59 people tried calling 911 during the outage, placing a total of 177 calls. None got through. Among those 177 calls were the desperate pleas for help from the family of Dean Switzer. Switzer suffered a heart attack at his home outside Fisher Branch on March 23. His family and friends—all Telus customers—tried calling 911 about 18 times but were unable to get through. READ MORE: 'Hang up, try later': Manitoba family unable to contact 911 during deadly heart attack In the months since the outage, Telus and Bell have filed reports and issued several statements to media – both placing the blame on the other. The most recent of which came on June 28, when Bell—CTV's parent company—filed its incident report with the CRTC. Bell—Manitoba's 911 network provider—said one of its 911 routes required a reset, which took four minutes to complete. When resets are required, Bell said it has a second route through which carriers can send 911 calls. It noted no other carriers had problems placing 911 calls the night of the outage. After the reset, Bell claimed Telus stopped sending 911 calls through Bell. 'It is only when Telus took action on its side of the network that calls then resumed,' Bell said in the report. 'This indicates the underlying issue as to why Telus ceased sending traffic following the reset is likely within Telus' network, as it was resolved through actions on the Telus side of the network.' Bell alleged Telus did not have a proper fail-safe in place and did not appropriately report the severity of the incident. Telus previously issued a report to the CRTC saying a technician was sent out to investigate the outage the night it happened. 'The Telus technician who attended to the outage did not follow the accepted protocols between Bell and Telus to alert about an outage affecting 911 circuits and did not follow Telus' standard practices by failing to escalate the issue with the company,' the report reads. The technician has since been disciplined, Telus said. In a statement to CTV News sent Thursday, Telus said there is 'no evidence' to suggest its 911 services would have been disrupted had the initial Bell outage not taken place. '…action was required by both Bell and Telus to bring Telus' 911 connectivity back online, as it was the sequencing of the reset that fully restored service,' the company said in a statement. 'We have been transparent about the process failure on our side, acknowledging that our outage notification procedures with Bell were not properly followed.' -With files from CTV's Danton Unger and Devon McKendrick
CTV News
05-07-2025
- CTV News
Bell, Telus spar over 911 outage
Winnipeg Watch Bell and Telus continue to spar over who is responsible for a 911 outage earlier this year.
