911 outage: AT&T Wireless customers couldn’t call 911 in Fayetteville last night

Photo: Mike Mozart / CC 2.0

AT&T cellular customers in Fayetteville were unable to makes calls to 911 for about an hour Wednesday night, according to police.

The outage affected cities across the country, prompting police departments to use email and social media posts to urge people to call departments’ main telephone lines instead of 911.

“AT&T informs us that this outage involves several states, and they are working diligently to fix the problem,” a post from the Fayetteville Police Department stated. The post was later updated with an announcement that the issue had been resolved.

AT&T issued an apology for the incident, which is now under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), according to company chair Ajit Pai.