Update as of 9:25 p.m. Thursday:
Lumen released the following statement Thursday evening :
"The 911 service disruption in Nebraska was restored shortly before 7 PM CT. Calls to 911 were automatically rerouted during the disruption to ensure emergency response was not impacted. Our technicians worked nonstop to fix the issue as quickly as possible. We appreciate our customer's patience and apologize for the disruption."
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Several Nebraska counties saw 911 disruptions again Thursday. It’s the fourth time we have reported on an outage involving Lumen Technologies since 2023.
Johnson, Otoe, Cass, Saline, and Jefferson counties all reported outages on social media on Thursday.
Reporter Molly Hudson reached out to the Nebraska Public Service Commission; no one was available for an interview, but was told the system is working as designed and 911 calls are being rerouted and answered by other call centers.
As of Thursday evening, Jefferson, Saline, Otoe, and Cass counties are all reporting that 911 services have been restored.
Lumen confirmed that the disruptions are the result of a fiber cut, but has not specified where or when it occurred.
It’s important to note this is the third Lumen disruption resulting from a fiber cut.
In August 2023, Lumen reported an overnight outage was caused by "fiber cuts in the area." Then, in April 2024, a line was cut in Kansas City, causing a multi-state outage.
These incidents led the Nebraska Public Service Commission to conduct an investigation. The commission found Lumen's level of performance failed to meet contract specifications.
The global issues director for Lumen says its tech team is investigating.
