Nebraska Public Service Commission delays first hearing on 911 outages

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – The Nebraska Public Service Commission announced Tuesday one of the hearings that was scheduled to be held this week regarding a series of 911 outages in the state this fall is being delayed.

Two separate hearings for two separate investigations are being held.

The hearings will focus on the two carriers responsible for providing the 911 communication services in the locations where outages were reported: Windstream and Lumen.

Windstream’s hearing is regarding the investigation into an outage that occurred Aug. 31. Windstream said a fire at their Lincoln facility, combined with the failure of a backup generator, led to a shutdown of service for several hours in southeast Nebraska.

That hearing was originally set to take place Wednesday; the PSC has delayed that hearing to Thursday, Dec. 28 at 9 a.m. due to illness.

The hearing into the Lumen investigation is still scheduled for Jan. 4, stemming from an outage on Sept. 3.

“The hearings are being held so that Commissioners can ask questions and get answers directly from the carriers involved in these outages,” NPSC Chair Dan Watermeier said. “Any decision regarding the investigations will be made at a later date.”

The hearings are not public, but people can watch them online. For information on how to live stream each hearing, use the links below:

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