A temporary outage knocked out Bethel’s 911 system for a short while on Thursday.
GCI says that cellphone calls to landlines were not going through on Thursday morning due to equipment failure. At 11 a.m., the Bethel Police Department reported to KYUK that their 911 lines were down due to the GCI cellular outage affecting all of Bethel. Police Dispatcher Natalie Hayes said that cellphones could only call other cellphones, and landlines could only call other landlines. She instructed those who needed emergency services to call from a landline.
Heather Handyside, Communications Director with GCI, says that when the company diagnosed the problem, local crews were dispatched and restored services within the hour. Handyside added that anytime GCI detects an outage, it’s the company's policy to contact emergency dispatchers to make them aware of the situation.
Anytime there is an interruption of any kind, people can call the GCI customer service line at (907) 868-4200.