‘Do not do this’: 911 centers flooded with non-emergency calls amid cell phone outage, police say
Please do not call 911 to check if your cell phone is working amid a nationwide cellular outage.
That’s the message Massachusetts State Police are giving on Thursday morning, as many 911 centers in the state “are getting flooded” with calls “from people calling to see if their 911 service works from their cell phone.”
“Please do not do this,” state police said in a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter, shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday. “If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work.”
Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone. Please do not do this. If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work. #outage
— Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) February 22, 2024
AT&T said Thursday morning that the company is experiencing a cellular outage that began before dawn and affected phone service across the country.
A cellular outage was also reported by T-Mobile, Verizon and other network users, according to the outage tracking website Downdetector.com.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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