An unknown number of people trying to get emergency help Tuesday night couldn't get through to 911 but Las Vegas police tells Contact 13 the problem has been fixed.
Police said about 6:30 p.m. last night, they learned cell phone calls from specific companies were not reaching the 911 system.
According to police, the communications center had a drop in the number of calls to 911 for that time of day. Landline calls were not affected.
An investigation identified a technical problem with Century Link, according to police. Century Link tells us all services were restored early this morning.
Las Vegas police issued the following statement:
At approximately Wednesday, September 12, 2017 at approximate 6:30 p.m., the LVMPD began receiving information that cell phone calls from select cellular carriers were not reaching the 9-1-1 system. The LVMPD Communications Center also observed a drop in the 9-1-1 call volume for that time of the day. The LVMPD initiated an investigation and immediately tried to identify the issue in conjunction with the outside cellular service providers and Century Link which provides internal telephony support for our 911 phone system. The failure was identified and isolated. The system began responding on September 13th at approximate 1:30 a.m.
What we know today is that calls placed to 9-1-1 never reached our Communications Center as they went through a Century Link routing system. Landline calls to 9-1-1 were not affected nor were 3-1-1 calls. Currently, all systems have been restored and we are continuing to investigate the cause with Century Link.
Century Link provided Contact 13 with this statement:
CenturyLink is aware that some wireless customers in Las Vegas experienced intermittent disruptions to their 911 services yesterday, caused by a technical issue. All services were restored very early this morning. CenturyLink takes its obligations to protect public safety very seriously and we apologize for any inconvenience this created.
