Being associated with the two recent deaths in Dallas, Texas, T-Mobile snapped into action to fix the 911 ghost call troubles being faced by their users with its Texas phone services.
According to the recent news headlines, a 6-month-old infant, Brandon Alex died on March 11, as he succumbed to his injuries while his babysitter couldn’t connect with the 911 emergency centres.
As per the news, Brandon had fallen and wasn’t moving, apparently injured. The babysitter of the infant tried calling 911 multiple times, but was either put on hold or left unanswered. The babysitter was reportedly using T-Mobile prepaid phone service on her cellphone.
After the infant’s mother rushed back home and took him to the hospital, he was declared dead.
The Technology Glitch
According to officials, the phones using T-Mobile’s Texas phone services were making multiple 911 emergency calls, flooding the emergency call centers with an uncontrollable amount traffic.
As a result, people were being put on hold for a long period of time and, their calls were still not being answered. In most of the cases, the waiting period was as long as 30-40 minutes. That is completely inconsistent with the city’s policy of answering emergency calls within 10 seconds.
The glitch caused in mobile prepaid phone service by T-Mobile instantly became a serious matter after the association with two deaths, one of a 6-month-old infant and the other of a 52-year-old man.
According to T.C. Broadnax, Dallas City Manager, the issue with the 911 emergency calls had been faced by the city since October 2016. The matter had been discussed with T-Mobile officials in November and the issues were considered as resolved in January 2017.
However, a recent 911 call glitch in the city again raised questions on T-Mobile, the renowned mobile and cheap local phone service provider in the city.
Broadnax stated that the evening when Brandon Alex died, the call center was flooded with more than 400 calls. According to officials, Brandon’s babysitter had called multiple times, after she was placed on a hold.
Solution to the Problem
Just after the problem was recognized, the top T-Mobile executives and engineers from this prepaid phone service giant came to Dallas. The experts reached out to work with city officials towards resolving the problem of the ghost calls.
The city brought 10 extra call takers on board for handling the increased amount of calls.
A week after the glitch occurred, there was no such hike in the emergency calls on the following Saturday. This weekend, the call takers were able to answer almost 90 percent of the emergency calls within 10 seconds.
This was made possible by technical experts and engineers from T-Mobile who are continuously working to make the company’s Texas phone services great again.
However, the actual reason behind the occurrence of the glitch is still not clear.
Council member Carolyn King-Arnold mentioned that the technical glitch will be completely solved, however, it might take a few more days.
“We will get the answer to whether it’s a lack of communication or whatever is going on in terms of the breakdowns,” she stated. “Either way we are committed to the safety of the citizens of Dallas.”
Final Thoughts
Such a technical fault in T-Mobile’s renowned telecommunications network has not only harmed the reputation of the company in Texas but has also put the safety of the citizens at a stake.
The families of the deceased ones are still in a state of trauma and the correction of the glitch provides little relief as they won’t get their loved ones back now.
With such an unfortunate and chaotic event, the prepaid phone service provider has been in the headlines again with a lot of unhappy customers and Texas City officials.