597 Exchange Disabled Last Night, System Now Back Up

If you tried to dial a 597 number last night between 8-11pm, you probably didn't achieve the results you wanted, as the system was down for about 3 hours. Emergency Management and 911 Director Pat Prunty said that officials became aware of the outage last night around 8:30 pm. "If you tried to call from a 597 land line, there was only a busy signal. If you tried calling a 597 number from another prefix, there was either a fast busy signal or the number just continued ringing," Prunty said. 

Cell phone numbers worked a little differently, according to Prunty. Depending on which cellular provider was involved determined how certain numbers reacted. Apparently a fuse was blown on a critical piece of Windstream Communications equipment. Prunty said that the problem was located rather quickly, but Windstream felt that it was a county problem at first, holding up response time. After a Windstream technician arrived, the problem was confirmed, but that the particular fuse continued to blow. The problem was eventually corrected but all computer systems had to begin the rebooting process, causing more of a delay. 

Prunty said the county did everything in it's power to make sure the problem was corrected as soon as possible. He also said that it had been 5 years since a similar problem was faced county-wide. If you experience any further problems or outages with your Windstream phone or internet service, instead of contacting county officials, please call Windstream's customer line from a cellular phone at 1-800-347-1991. 

Edmonson Voice Staff