911 Down? Sprint Cellphones In North Carolina Counties Out After California Emergency System Restored

Being unable to reach 911’s emergency services when they’re absolutely needed can only worsen a potentially dire situation. Sprint customers in two counties in North Carolina faced such an issue Wednesday night, according to local reports.

In the state’s Vance and Franklin counties, those using a Sprint cellphone had trouble reaching 911 services on Wednesday night, but the issue has been resolved, ABC affiliate WTVD reported. No other carrier’s customers like T-Mobile, AT&T or Verizon were affected.

Vance County Communications, which covers the entire country and the city of Henderson, were dealing with “technical difficulties” at about 9:45 p.m. when Sprint customers called and Franklin Country started facing technical problems around 11 p.m. Wednesday night, WNCN.com reported.

The reason for the outage and why it directly affected Sprint customers and no other carrier was not immediately announced.

The two counties sit right next to each other, with Vance to the north and Franklin to the south. They are northwest of the state’s capital Raleigh, and Sprint’s coverage map shows – in dark green - that while North Carolina’s cities are covered, stepping outside of the urban areas could result in off-network roaming.

The issue comes on the heels of California’s Coachella Valley also having problems on Monday afternoon with its 911 system, though not related to one specific telecommunications carrier, The Desert Sun reported. Sheriff’s departments in Palm Springs, Indio and Riverside each faced difficulties receiving calls from cellphones and providers like TelePacific also reported issues.

That problem may have been traced to Southern California Edison, which serves as a main electricity hub in the region. The company told The Desert Sun it was “experiencing a fiber issue” in one of the cables that provide service to companies like TelePacific. SCE later announced the issue had been resolved at 1 a.m. later that night.