Local emergency communications have noted some disruptions in communication with certain cell providers as a widespread network outage continues for Verizon customers.
The outage was first noted Wednesday across the nation as customers reported their devices were no longer showing service bars and instead seeing the letters SOS, signifying a loss of connection. While the outage caught national headlines Wednesday, staff of the Lyon County Emergency Communications Center reported having issues connecting with Verizon customers Tuesday, with no additional issues developing Wednesday.
With this in mind, KVOE News reached out to LCECC Director Roxanne Van Gundy, who says outages such as this can certainly “Impede people calling 911.” KVOE News asked what residents can do if they are experiencing such impediments.
She says the best course of action is to try texting the non-emergency line, calling from a non-Verizon device, or calling from a landline.
According to a statement from Verizon published by ABC News, the company is aware of the issue and their engineers are reportedly “Engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
According to Downdetecor, around 175,000 customers were offline at one point; however, that number had decreased to less than 60,000, according to information from ABC. ABC also reports that law enforcement officials believe the issue is the result of a technical malfunction, not a cyber attack.
