In February 2025, TUSA Consulting Services conveyed how cell/fiber outages are becoming too common, negatively affecting the reliability of emergency communications—and this customer testimony verifies such argument. When a single fiber cut disrupted two Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), the impact was immediate and deeply concerning. These critical 911 centers are the lifelines for emergency response in their communities, and the inability to receive or dispatch calls due to a preventable infrastructure failure is unacceptable. The frequency of such outages, combined with the apparent lack of sufficient redundancy and proactive customer support, underscores a systemic issue that cannot be ignored.
Customer Story!
“On Thursday, 05/01/25, AT&T experienced a fiber cut that affected two PSAPS in the same area. The issue occurred around 12:45 PM, and calls were quickly redirected to another PSAP to support the outage.
AT&T contacted one of the PSAPs around 4:00 PM, informing us that due to the fiber being older and buried deeper, repairs could take another 6+ hours. This PSAP sent two telecommunicators to the backup PSAP to assist with processing both PSAPs that were experiencing the outage.
I reached out to the NOC around 10:30 PM for an update. The rep said he would look into it and called back at 11:00 PM, confirming that the ticket was still in “Jeopardy” status, meaning the fiber had not yet been restored. Shortly after, we were notified by a tech that restoration was completed around 10:00 PM.
To verify, I called the NOC again and was told a technician was being sent to the central office in the area to check for a larger issue. At 11:47 PM, the NOC called back and informed me it would likely be after 7:00 AM Friday before full service was restored, citing that AT&T does not dispatch techs to central offices after hours.
This was a bit confusing, especially considering two PSAPs were impacted. From what we’ve gathered, the blue cabinet with the cards in our server room hasn’t fully responded to the fiber restoration yet.
(Right as I was about to press the send button, AT&T showed up at the door).
If any connectivity provider, wireline or wireless, is going to market and sell public safety services, then policies and procedures should be put strictly in place with the highest priority and proper training to all staff taking the call to identify the issue and/or the restoration of services. Anything less is unacceptable.”
TUSA Consulting Services continues to advocate for robust, vendor-agnostic solutions that prioritize public safety above all else. Our PSAP customers deserve consistent, resilient service—not the bare minimum. AT&T’s failure to mitigate the impact of this fiber cut through adequate backup routing, timely communication, and accountability only highlights the vulnerability of relying on providers who do not treat 911 services as mission critical. It’s time for telecom carriers to be held to a higher standard and for public safety agencies to demand the level of service their mission—and their communities—REQUIRE and DESERVE.
TUSA is an independent consultant providing professional services to Public Safety. TUSA does not sell, provide, or represent any equipment or managed services that could deter our professional opinion towards anything other than a vendor agnostic solution to support the customer identified needs.
