911 Call Centers Experience Service Interruption During Phone System Maintenance

Operating a 911 Call Center means network uptime and quality are critical at all times. When callers are seeking emergency assistance and need to communicate with law enforcement or first responders, the worst possible thing that can happen is being unable to reach the 911 service, or worse, being re-routed to a recorded message instead of getting needed help.

The reasons for these outages occurring can vary depending on a number of factors and for this reason it’s important to have the best possible system monitoring and backup tools in place - since people’s lives are literally at risk.

Recently, two counties in the state of Kansas experienced downtime with their local 911 services. According to news reports, residents of Sedgwick and Shawnee County in Wichita were both affected by an outage that led to callers dialing into the emergency centers and hearing a voice recording instead of being connected to a live dispatcher.

Upon investigation, it was reportedly found that the problem occurred when phone system maintenance work being conducted by AT&T (News - Alert) caused them to go offline for an unreported amount of time over the weekend.

To alleviate this same issue from occurring in the future, 911 calls will be moved over to the county’s internal backup system during times when phone system maintenance work will occur.

In addition to preparing for system downtime or other network issues, it’s important to also have an efficient plan in place for scheduling at your call center. Staffing enough agents to handle call volumes is key to ensuring callers are not waiting on hold or unable to speak with a live dispatcher immediately.

Edited by Luke Bellos