Local subscribers to Verizon Communications telephone service
were unable to make outgoing phone calls between 7:45 a.m. June 7
and 11 a.m. Monday due to network outages.
Local subscribers to Verizon Communications telephone service were unable to make outgoing phone calls between 7:45 a.m. June 7 and 11 a.m. Monday due to network outages.
“It was (an) SBC (glitch) … that serves those customers and prevented them from making outbound calls,” said Jonathan Davies, spokesperson for Verizon Communications.
Instead, they got a fast busy signal. Verizon shares part of the network with SBC, Davies explained. Incoming calls were unaffected.
“When we found out about the problem, we called SBC and they released those lines,” said Davies. “It seems to be an inadvertent situation on their part.”
Steven Fung, manager of Gilroy Tile & Stone said he arrived at work Monday morning to find he was unable to connect with several customers.
”It wasn’t really a big deal, but I didn’t know what was going on,” Fung said. About the time he realized he was having problems and was getting ready to call Verizon, the problem was fixed, he said.
Linda Schwartz, a customer service representative at the Carpet Outlet, had a similar story.
”It didn’t really affect our business because calls were coming in,” she said. Although they couldn’t reach installers and customers, the problem would have been worse had the store been open Sunday.
”That would have meant a lot of unhappy customers
Davies believes that the problem was limited to the Gilroy area. Although the number of customers affected in Gilroy was not disclosed, Davies said Verizon received about 250 complaints from customers.
“It’s very unusual for this sort of thing to happen. The network runs 99.9 percent of the time, people pick up the phone and get a dial tone.”
SBC was not immediately available for comment.
