911 outage lasts hours for some wireless phone users in Seminole County

SANFORD, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Seminole County Emergency Management sent out a county wide alert warning Thursday morning, warning residents that some of them would be unable to call 911 today.

 "They may get a "this call can not be completed as dialed" or they may just get a fast busy signal," said Alan Harris, the Seminole County Emergency Management director.     

For hours  this outage affected anyone using Sprint of T-mobile as their wireless provider or anyone who's phone was using one of their cell towers.  

"The 911 system in Seminole county currently is working perfectly.  Unfortunately the network providers who route the calls to 911, that's where the issue is," said Harris.

Seminole County's emergency alert  two non emergency number,  one for medical and fire services, the other law enforcement.  

"This is a good message for everybody. Have the non emergency line of your local law enforcement agency and fire department. In your phone, put it in your phone now," said Harris.  

He says emergency and non emergency calls all coming into the same call center allowing those in need to get the same service.  Sprint and T-mobile were without the ability to call 911 for nearly five hours.  T-Mobile told The News Station that it was a third-party issue.