911 calls return after temporary outage

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Anchorage residents experiencing emergencies were unable to call 911, and needed to call 311 instead for a brief period on Tuesday.

In a community alert, Anchorage police wrote that people were unable to reach emergency dispatchers by calling 911, and instead need to call the 311 number “due to an ACS Network outage based in the Lower 48.”

Anchorage police sent an email about the outage at 4:25 p.m. Tuesday, and reported at 6:11 p.m. that 911 service had returned.

Police wrote that both landlines and cellphones were unable to connect to emergency dispatchers through the 911 number, and are instead encouraged to call 311 — and choose option 1 — or 907-786-8900 and choose option 0.

“It is unknown how long this issue is expected to last,” police wrote.

According to MATCOM dispatch in Wasilla, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s emergency services dispatchers are not experiencing the same issue. It is unclear whether the network outage is impacting areas outside of Anchorage.