BOSTON – A nationwide outage is impacting wireless 911 call capabilities across the country.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and Massachusetts State Police report that the outage affected CenturyLink, an Internet communications company, resulting in issues with the 911 emergency call system and wireless phone services.
On their official online news blog Friday morning, Massachusetts State Police originally reported that the issue had been resolved, and that callers in the state may resume using 911 from their cell phones for public safety emergencies.
Just before 1:00 p.m. Friday afternoon, State Police provided another update stating that the outage is still ongoing and is sporadic across the state.
“Pls note there are again some sporadic outages affecting cellular and certain landline 911 calls. An updated press release is being prepared. In the interim if you cannot reach a dispatcher by dialing 911, pls call 10-digit number of your local police department,” said the official Twitter page of Massachusetts State Police.
MEMA sent out an emergency message to smartphone users Friday morning warning of the malfunction.
The outage seems to only have affected wireless 9-1-1 calls. Emergency calls made from landlines appear to be working.
Residents using cell phones may also call the 10-digit general number of their local police department. They may also call the 10-digit number of a State Police Barracks in their area.
By TIM DUNN, CapeCod.com News Center
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