By KRWG News
Las Cruces – The emergency 911 phone system for Las Cruces and Dona Ana County experienced some technical problems early Tuesday morning but the lines were repaired and fully operational by 5:15 a.m.
For more than three hours early today only cell phone users in the area were able to call the emergency 911 number while the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority was experiencing problems with its Qwest communications lines. Landline customers of Qwest were unable to call 911 during that period.
MVRDA dispatchers were assigned to the New Mexico State Police headquarters in Las Cruces where calls were able to be received.
No major problems were believed to have been attributed to the temporary loss of communications.
At around 3:30 a.m. the emergency 911 system was repaired and fully operational for landline and cell phone customers, and the non-emergency number of (575) 526-0795 was made fully functional by 5:15 a.m.
Representatives from Qwest have attributed the loss of service to a routing configuration that was modified during the Dec. 14 outage.
Residents of Las Cruces and Dona Ana County are encouraged to save MVRDA's non-emergency phone number - (575) 526-0795 - in their cell phone or address book, as well as the dispatch number (575) 524-6111 for New Mexico State Police. Residents are encouraged to call one of those numbers in the event the 911 number is not operational.
In the event of an emergency where all phone lines are down, residents can seek help at any fire station within the City of Las Cruces.