Loss of service to a PSAP is caused by what?

• A. An interruption or break in the communication links
• B. Destruction of the PSAP facility
• C. Failure of the DBMS
• D. End office isolation

Answer: (A)

Loss of service to a PSAP occurs when the communication paths that carry 9-1-1 calls and related data between the PSAP and the rest of the network are interrupted. If those links—such as trunk circuits, fiber, or interconnection paths—go down or are broken, calls cannot reach the PSAP and data can’t be exchanged, so service is lost. While scenarios like a destroyed PSAP facility or failures inside the PSAP (such as a database system outage) can cause outages, the fundamental and most common cause of a loss of service is an interruption in the network links that connect the PSAP to the broader emergency services system. End office isolation is a related network issue, but it’s a more specific condition; the core idea is that any break in the communication links prevents calls from getting to or through the PSAP.