     Illness has led the Nebraska Public Service Commission to postpone today’s hearing on the August 31st 911 outage in southeast Nebraska until a week from tomorrow on Dec .
The session will still begin at 8:00 MT in the PSC hearing room in Lincoln. Â
The two telecommunications carriers who run the state’s 911 systems each suffered major outages the same week in August and the commission is holding separate hearings for each.
The hearing postponed from today is on Windstream, which said a fire at its Lincoln facility, combined with the failure of a backup generator, led to a shutdown of service for several hours in southeast Nebraska.
The hearing for the other 911 carrier, Lumen Technology, is set for January 4th, Lumen serves the bulk of the state, but its outage 2 days before Windstream left 39 of 68 dispatch centers statewide without 911 voice service.
Lumen said at first that most of the outage was caused when a third-party contractor cut a fiber optic line in Omaha, but later said a second cut line in Minnesota also contributed to the problems.
Both the Windstar and Lumen sessions will be investigatory hearings to receive testimony and gather evidence relevant to the commission’s investigations..Any decisions on the investigations will be made at a later date.
Commissioners and agency legal staff will ask questions and get answers directly from Lumen or Windstream. Testimony during the hearings may also include invited witnesses Public comment will not be taken.
Individuals interested in watching the proceedings but unable to do so in person in Lincoln can watch online at psc.nebraska.gov/stream>.