Cellphone 911 calls failed in big storm
Verizon promises to ferret out why system broke down
At the height of a blinding afternoon snowstorm almost two weeks ago, the state's enhanced 911 cellphone system failed, leaving motorists stuck on highways unable to reach police easily.
State authorities said the glitch, which appears to have been in the Verizon network that routes all cell 911 calls, lasted as long as 40 minutes. The result: Users who called 911 around 3 p.m. on Dec. 9 heard only a busy signal.
''Something jammed the system. The calls never got through," said Edward M. Merrick Jr., the chairman of the standards committee for the Statewide Emergency Telecommunications Board, which oversees the system. ''It's a serious concern."
The breakdown coincided with a Northeaster that barrelled across Massachusetts, icing roads, crippling traffic, and decreasing visibility to just a few feet. Parts of the state received 15 inches of snow and experienced wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour.
The hour before the storm hit, the State Police enhanced 911 center in Framingham answered about 500 calls. But between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., operators received fewer than 200. It is not clear how many calls failed, but it appears a switch that controls which cell calls enter the 911 system was overwhelmed and shut down. Land-line calls still went through.
Merrick was aware that call volume had lessened during the storm, but until he was contacted by the Globe, he attributed it to not having enough operators on duty. It was only after some inquiries, and 10 days after the storm, that Merrick learned the problem may have been on Verizon's end.
''That's a much bigger concern," he said ''I want a clear explanation of what happened."
A Verizon spokesman, Jack Hoey, said the company is investigating.
''We're taking it very seriously," Hoey said. ''Public safety is our number-one concern."
But Hoey added that it is not possible to build enough capacity to handle every contingency. ''It would be like building a highway system for the occasional peaks so you could handle a mass evacuation," he said. ''You'd have to pave over America."
The 911 system went into operation in 1991 with a direct connection to an emergency dispatcher. Enhanced 911, which gives a caller's identity and location, went into effect in 1997 and location for cellphone users has been continually improving. Today, a dispatcher can tell within about 300 feet where a cell caller is.
In 2004, 3.4 million 911 calls were received. The failure two weeks ago was the first of its kind since the system was put in place, Hoey said. Merrick compared the overload to the failure of the cellphone system in New York after the World Trade Center towers were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.
Unlike emergency calls from land lines, which are handled at more than 200 police and fire stations across the state, 911 calls from cellphones -- regardless of the network -- are routed through Verizon's network to State Police centers in Framingham, Middleborough, or Northampton.
In the eastern part of the state, calls are sent to Framingham. If no one picks the call up within 90 seconds, it is sent to Middleborough.
During the snowstorm, Framingham did not receive calls for 40 minutes and Middleborough did not receive calls for 20 minutes. Callers who dialed directly to the barracks were connected.
When a Verizon technician became aware that cellular 911 calls were not getting through, the switch was reset and calls began arriving.
''It was almost like someone turned on a couple of extra lines around 4 and the volume went back up," Merrick said.
He said that when he thought the issue was about staffing, he wasn't as concerned, because he said it's not feasible to have enough operators to handle the worst-case scenario.
Douglas Belkin can be reached at dbelkin@globe.com. 