Massachusetts’ 911 system is down statewide, Boston Fire says | CNN
www.cnn.com
Massachusetts’ 911 system is down statewide, according to a post on X from the Boston Fire Department.
  • Stovetop@lemmy.world
    0·
    5 months ago

    Right as a big heat wave kicks off, too.

    When I saw the message come up on my phone, all I could think was how glad I was to not be whoever is responsible for the outage, because people are likely going to die from this and I’d never want that on my conscience.

  • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world
    0·
    5 months ago

    I live in MA. My work and personal cell phones were screeching alerts every hour until it got restored. Kinda scary that it can go down like that.

  • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
    0·
    5 months ago

    Looks like the state operates a single 911 system, so while we can speculate a number of reasons, the most logical conclusion is either a trunk failure or an update failure that cut routing to their distribution. Fortunately it looks like they found the problem quickly and worked around it.

    If you’re interested in what went wrong, they won’t be excited to publicize it, but a FOIA request should release the report on what happened.

    • Frozengyro@lemmy.world
      0·
      5 months ago

      I’d imagine a major city would have noticed immediately. I’m sure Boston gets several hundred calls an hour.

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    5 months ago

    What how? Update faster.

    Does anyone understand how 911 lines are different than regular phone lines that they could go down?

    Could it be a Cyber attack?

    Where’s all the phone people at?

    • Zron@lemmy.world
      0·
      5 months ago

      What how? Update faster. Probably some routing failure caused by ancient infrastructure

      Does anyone understand how 911 lines are different >than regular phone lines that they could go down? They are the same phone lines, 911 just has its own routing system.

      Could it be a Cyber attack? Definitely could, but never attribute to malice that which can be explained first by stupidity.

      Where’s all the phone people at? Retired. Everyone has cell phones, and has told all the kids to not take trades jobs for the past 30 years. Every trade is hurting for new workers, including phone line technicians. There’s not enough bodies to do the work anymore.