Multiple City of Dallas departments suffered significant disruptions as a result of a network outage Wednesday.
AT&T experienced an internet failure in the downtown Dallas area on April 19 that severed the City’s access point to the internet, disrupting operations for several hours.
City Manager T.C. Broadnax stated, “While the City’s internal network and services are operational, the lack of access to the internet is having [a] broad and severe impact to City services,” as per CBSTEXAS.
City officials announced this outage via Twitter at 9:34 a.m. All City departments, with the exception of 911 emergency services, were affected. The emergency response departments operate on a separate system.
The City of Dallas initially announced that this outage would delay the scheduled 9:00 a.m. City Council meeting until 10:00 a.m. However, about three hours later, officials announced the meeting would be canceled.
The City’s non-emergency services request line, 311, which usually handles about 500 calls per day, was hamstrung in its ability to serve customers.
Daisy Torres Fast, director of Dallas’ 311 customer service center, told The Dallas Morning News that the outage kept the organization from receiving requests by phone, internet, and the Our Dallas app. While some callers were able to get through to an agent, the department’s ability to provide services was still limited because of the lack of internet.
The City’s public utilities department and the DPD’s website were out of commission for most of the workday.
The City announced at 4:45 p.m. that services had finally been restored and that all departments were back to normal operation.
City Secretary Bilierae Johnson said it is unknown when the canceled City Council meeting will be rescheduled.
AT&T officials said the outage was caused by equipment failure and that it did not affect the greater Dallas area.
“We worked quickly to restore internet service to Dallas City Hall, which was temporarily disrupted this morning by an equipment failure. We apologize for the inconvenience.” AT&T said in a statement, according to The Dallas Morning News.