JACKSON Tenn — A temporary problem with mobile phone routing west Tennessee residents to dial a new, 10-digit number in an emergency instead of 911.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency issued a series of text message alerts today asking residents to use an alternate emergency number due to a routing disruption for cellular calls.
WNWS spoke with Madison County 911 Director Kim Augustine who said just one call in Madison County was dropped. She said that call was routed back and handled. Augustine said problems were reported in Hardeman and Shelby Counties.
According the 911 director callers “you’re talking to one 911 caller then another call could come in on top of it, you would drop a call while the other call is taking place”.
TEMA officials and state 911 directors worked diligently with service providers to isolate the problem. In a follow up to the story, shortly before 6:00 PM Augustine said that the wireless carriers believe they have isolated the issue. They have rerouted calls thru a different system and 911 calls are testing perfectly at this time.
