Deb Collins
Lincoln, September 12, 2023- On Tuesday, September 12, the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC) opened separate investigations into recent 911 outages involving telecommunication carriers Lumen (911-075/PI 248) and Windstream (911-076/PI 249).
“The disruptions in 911 service that occurred in these two separate incidents is unacceptable,”said Commission Chair Dan Watermeier. “The Commission expects 911 service providers tomaintain diverse and redundant connections between 911centers and their networks.”
Determining why the outage resulted in the loss of 911 service over such a wide area ofNebraska will be essential to the Lumen investigation (911-075/PI 248).A primary focus of the Windstream investigation (911-076/PI 249) will be to determine why afire and loss of electrical power at a single Windstream facility resulted in a disruption of 911service to a large portion of southeast Nebraska.
In both investigations the Commission seeks an explanation as to why the redundancy requiredof both telecommunications carriers failed and a solution to prevent this from happening again.
Commissioner Watermeier said, “The highest level of service is expected and required of our911 service providers. There are no exceptions.”