A contractor digging trenches in central Oklahoma City to lay cab...
A contractor digging trenches in central Oklahoma City to lay cable for an SBC local competitor sliced through an SBC underground conduit, knocking out the city’s E911 capability and the citywide public safety communications system more than 12 hours…
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Mon. The 911 calls were rerouted to regular city police phone numbers, but centralized dispatching and automatic location capability were lost. The cable cut also halted citywide radio communications among police, fire and rescue units as the radio repeaters linked by phone lines went dead. Without the repeaters, radio communication was limited to a few blocks’ radius, so emergency personnel had to fine phones to call farther. Oklahoma City is building a new $4.6 million public safety communications system that will provide automatic rerouting capability if a phone line goes down, but it won’t be up until March.