AT&T Routing Failure Delays 911 Calls Across Rockwall County

On December 27, 2025 a multi county interruption affected emergency call routing and resulted in failures and delays for some 911 calls in Hunt, Rockwall and Kaufman counties and in portions of Collin County. Emergency dispatch officials traced the problem to AT&T routing systems. North Central Texas 911 officials and AT&T said the issue was addressed and call routing returned to normal later the same day.

Local emergency agencies reported that some calls were redirected or required callers to use landlines or alternate numbers while the issue was being resolved. Municipal and county emergency departments advised residents that non emergency local numbers and online county resources remained available for police and fire dispatch. Officials also described reviewing contingency procedures that were used while FirstNet and AT&T routing were impacted.

For Rockwall County residents the immediate impact was potential delay in response times for people attempting to reach emergency services by wireless phone during the disruption. Local police and fire departments urged residents to have non emergency contact information readily available and to use landline connections when possible during outages. County and city agencies said they would provide follow up information on any procedural changes resulting from their after action reviews.

The event highlights institutional and policy questions about the resilience of emergency communications that are relevant to county officials and voters. Many local emergency systems rely on commercial network routing and on the FirstNet service that ties public safety agencies to private carriers. A single carrier routing failure can therefore affect multiple counties at once. County leadership and public safety directors now face choices about investments in redundancy, formal contingency agreements with alternate carriers, and oversight of vendor performance to ensure continuity of emergency access for residents.

As agencies complete their reviews this week, elected officials on county commissions and city councils may consider formalizing requirements for system audits and reporting to increase transparency and public confidence. In the short term residents should confirm non emergency phone numbers for their local departments and keep alternative contact options readily available.