LINCOLN- One of the telecommunications providers responsible for a string of 911 outages in Nebraska over the last year has agreed to make more than $1 million worth of upgrades to its infrastructure and network, settling with state regulators who in turn agreed to dismiss a complaint they had filed against the company. Windstream, the Arkansas-based provider responsible for three 911 service outages in Nebraska between September 2023 and January, will avoid paying millions of dollars in fines or having its carrier designation revoked as a result of the settlement, which regulators unanimously approved Wednesday morning.

The settlement comes more than a year after a water leak at the provider's downtown Lincoln data center kicked off a chain of events that eventually led to 911 working either sporadically or not at all in Southeast Nebraska for several hours between Sept. 2 and 3 of 2023. That outage, along with two shorter disruptions in November and January, prompted an investigation that led to the State 911 Department filing a formal complaint in July against Windstream with the Public Service Commission, the state regulatory body that oversees numerous industries, including the telecommunications industry and the 911 department.

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