Reno, NV… The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office is advising Red Rock Area residents whose phone numbers have a “969” prefix that their phone provider, Rural Telephone Company, is currently experiencing technical difficulties and about 150-200 customers are unable to make phone calls outside their immediate area.

This includes “911” emergency calls.

The Sheriff’s Office advises residents to use their cell phones to contact emergency services. According to Rural Telephone, the outage is not impacting all customers and residents who do not have cell phones are encouraged to contact a neighbor to see if their phone service is working. Rural Telephone further advises that Internet service should still be available to all customers.

Rural Telephone says that they have ordered the equipment needed to fix the problem and service is expected to be fully restored sometime tomorrow (Tuesday, August 13. 2013).