911 disruption caused by software update to accommodate 10-digit dialing, Bell says

The Maritime-wide 911 services were down for two and a half hours Tuesday because of a software update gone wrong, according to Bell.

The emergencyservice was not available to landlines in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island on Tuesday from 6 a.m. to around8:30 a.m.

On Tuesday afternoon,Bell spokesperson Katie Hatfield said the root cause was a software update introduced at about 6a.m. in preparation for 10-digit dialling inNew Brunswick.

She said the update "triggered unexpected call-processing failures to 911," but had no effect on other types of calls.

New Brunswick is switching to mandatory 10-digit dialling on April 15. The change is happening as area code 428 is added to the province's phone system.

Hatfield said once Bell realized the issue, engineers rolledback the update to restore services.

"We have adjusted our processes and safeguards to ensure that this type of issue will not happen again, including adjusting our test plans for future updates," she said.

Hatfield said 911 outages are rare.

In the summer of 2020, a similar outagemade 911 inaccessible for about 90 minutesin the Maritimes.

Hatfield said during Tuesday's outage, anyone with "wireless devices"could still access 911because of a fall-back mechanism in thesystem, and people were asked to call local police stations in case of emergency.

An emergency alert was sent out about 911 disruptions in Nova Scotia, but not for New Brunswick.