Verizon outage has minimal impact on Kitsap 911 calls

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Verizon Wireless reported April 7 a system outage that could have impacted Kitsap County residents’ ability to call 911.

Kitsap 911, the agency that dispatches emergency police, fire, and EMS services in Kitsap County, posted via social media that they were notified about a system outage affecting some Verizon customers.

“Verizon Wireless is reporting an outage at eight of its sites. This could affect the ability to make or complete calls to 911 in the Silverdale area of Kitsap County. Update: This is now 48 sites and affecting Bainbridge Island, Port Orchard, Bremerton, and Silverdale,” per an April 7 Kitsap 911 Facebook post.

Kitsap News Group reached out to representatives from Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and AT&T, who declined to provide the frequency of outages in Kitsap County or an estimate of the number of impacted customers. Social media posts from Kitsap 911 show roughly 39 possible phone carrier outages between Jan. 1, 2025, and April 15, 2026.

Kitsap 911 executive director Maria Jameson-Owens said outages posted online are specific to phone carriers rather than a 911 outage. “These outages have likely always occurred, but with updated technology in the past 10 years, carriers now know there is an outage and are required to notify 911,” she said.

A Verizon Wireless spokesperson confirmed the outage and provided the following statement. “Last week, our network experienced a brief service disruption. Our team responded immediately, and service was quickly restored for our customers. An internal review of the incident did not identify any impacts to 911 service in the area.”

During a phone carrier outage, from a caller’s perspective, the 911 call would not connect to 911, and the caller would likely receive a message saying the call could not be made, Jameson-Owens said.

Jameson-Owens said Kitsap 911 has reported zero phone outages in 2025 and 2026 thus far and referred Kitsap News Group to applicable phone carriers. Any phone carrier outage the agency is aware of will be posted on social media, she said. “Call from a different phone carrier or a landline, or try texting, because we do have text to 911, and sometimes a text will come through, even if a call won’t,” she said.

An AT&T spokesperson confirmed via email that on April 7, the company’s network was operating normally. A T-Mobile spokesperson made the following statement regarding reliability. “Like all wireless networks, service disruptions can occasionally occur due to factors such as severe weather, fiber cuts, loss of commercial power, or third-party provider issues. We continue to invest in network resilience and redundancy to help maintain connectivity. When issues are identified that could impact service, T-Mobile notifies potentially impacted 911 call centers within 30 minutes.”