Santa Ana : City’s Phone System Fails for Several Hours

The city’s phone system, installed just five months ago, failed for several hours Sunday, leaving police and fire departments without their regular lines.

However, Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said the emergency 911 line wasn’t interrupted and that regular telephone service was restored about noon, four hours after the lines went down.

“Some people did end up calling on the 911 line for non-emergency calls, but there were no major problems,” Helton said.

The breakdown didn’t affect other government agencies in the Civic Center complex, which was generally closed for the weekend.

When the City of Santa Ana installed its own telephone system in July, glitches caused some early problems.

At first, callers to City Hall received a recording saying the line had been “disconnected and there is no new number” or were switched to a wrong number. The problems were swiftly corrected and city officials said they expect to save about $20,000 a year using the new system.