911 Outage Under Investigation

​The Minnesota Public Utilities Community (PUC) has announced an investigation into the 911 outage that disrupted service throughout the state on August 1. In a filing submitted with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, the PUC will review whether  West Safety Services and CenturyLink followed all laws and rules “relating to adequate service in their provision of 911 service.”

As part of the investigation, ECN will provide the PUC with evidence pertaining to the 65 minute outage where 693 calls failed to route to 911 dispatch centers. CenturyLink’s review found that a West employee made an error in the network that resulted in the outage. Read more about the outage.

Text-to-911: An Innovation that Keeps Minnesotans Safe

Text-to-911 is a bit precocious. It’s only eight months old, and it has already won an award.

Emergency Communication Networks (ECN) received a Minnesota State Government Innovation Award (SGIA) for it at a recent ceremony. Judges from the Public and Nonprofit Leadership Center at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs reviewed 62 applicants and ECN’s Text-to-911 campaign was among the top 10 programs to receive recognition. Learn more about this prestigious award and the hard work that prompted it in this recent DPS blog.

Contract Allows Responders to Sign up For Dedicated Wireless Broadband

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If you’ve ever tried to use your cell phone in an emergency or during a large event, you know service can be spotty or non-existent. Now imagine being a first responder and having to send and receive information over those same networks.

That’s why the State of Minnesota finalized a contract with FirstNet and AT&T. The pair will build and deploy the nationwide public safety broadband network across Minnesota. Public safety agencies who sign up for the dedicated service will receive priority and preemption in an emergency, which means they’ll be able to get critical mission-driven information when it’s needed most. Learn more in our news release here.