Cricket cellphone users had problems when calling 911 for about five hours overnight Thursday, city officials said.
Starting at 9 p.m., the city of Tucson's 911 dispatch center had an "unusually large number of dropped calls," which were later determined to be all from Cricket phones, said Michael Graham, a spokesman for the city.
By 2:30 a.m., Cricket had fixed the problem, which had affected cellphones in Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties, Graham said.
"This was a Cricket issue, not a city issue, and it has been fixed," he said.
A news alert sent out early Friday said Cricket users should use land lines when calling 911.
Eve Schumacher,,47, is a Cricket user who, like many people, does not have a land line at home. She was concerned Friday morning.
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"It was kind of scary, especially when you have small children at home and one of them has asthma," she said. "I didn't receive anything from Cricket telling about this so in case of an emergency I wouldn't have known."
Jennifer Briscoe, a Cricket representative, said the cause of the problem is still under investigation and Cricket is working with Qwest to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Contact reporter Fernanda Echavarri at fechavarri@azstarnet.com or 573-4224.
