Verizon Wireless indicated cell, 911 service restored this afternoon after storm, fiber cut; landline services still impacted
Violent storms appear to have caused wireless network outages along parts of the Eastern seaboard, with most of the damage centered on southern New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
The storms looked to have knocked out service to all four nationwide mobile operators for a period of time beginning early Wednesday, with at least Verizon Wireless reporting that select service had been restored by early afternoon. As of Thursday morning, Verizon Communications said it was still working to restore landline services in some areas.
Website downdetector.com indicated a strong “blob” of outage across the area from all four operators. Reports indicated that the outage also impacted television and Internet service, which looks to have been linked to a Verizon statement that a fiber cut in the area “affected the redundant equipment we have in place to provide system back-up.”
The outage also impacted local 911 calls with Chester County, Pa., emergency services posting to its Facebook page that voice calls “may not work,” but that text messaging services appeared to be operational.
A number of service outages have been reported so far this year, including Sprint services in the Midwest and AT&T services in Texas.
The Federal Communications Commission recently tagged regional telecom operator CenturyLink and its 911 services partner Intrado with a $17.4 million fine tied to a 911 outage last April across parts of Washington, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania. The FCC Enforcement Bureau estimates the outage resulted in 6,600 missed 911 calls in a six-hour period. These calls included reports of “domestic violence, assault, motor vehicle accidents, a heart attack, an overdose, and an intruder breaking into a residence,” according to federal documents.
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