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The Associated Press
St. Paul

Human error blamed for statewide 911 outage in Minnesota

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Officials in Minnesota say human error was to blame for a statewide 911 outage earlier this month.

Minnesota's Emergency Communications Networks said Wednesday it has concluded its investigation into the Aug. 1 outage. Similar disruptions were reported in North Dakota and North Carolina.

According to the agency, CenturyLink, Minnesota's 911 service provider, said human error by a third-party vendor caused the outage.

CenturyLink says an employee of West Safety Services made a mistake while making a network configuration change. The error prevented 911 calls from being accepted in the three states.

CenturyLink says nearly 700 calls to more than 50 Minnesota 911 dispatch centers failed to be routed during the hour-long outage.

West Safety Services has agreed to stop work on its network through August while it reviews the outage.