Pennsylvania 911 System Faces Statewide Outage Due to Operating System Defect

A significant 911 outage occurred across parts of Pennsylvania and neighboring areas on July 11, primarily affecting calls routed through the Next Generation 911 (NG911) system. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) identified the root cause as a defect in an operating system component of the NG911 infrastructure, not a cyberattack, leading to intermittent disruptions in call delivery. During the outage, some counties such as Darke County had to redirect 911 calls to business lines, with instructions for callers to press '1' if met with voice prompts to reach dispatch. Brightspeed, a nationwide internet provider, was reported to be experiencing related 911 service issues in some areas. PEMA activated emergency alerts and advised residents to save their county's non-emergency 911 numbers as a precaution. The agency is conducting an ongoing detailed investigation and implementing corrective measures to improve system redundancy and prevent future outages.