July 24, 2006

Verizon Wireless has confirmed reports that the carrier suffered a network glitch on Friday afternoon.

Verizon's technical problem made it impossible for customers in South Dakota and parts of Iowa and Minnesota to make or receive phone calls.

Keloland TV in Sioux Falls originally was told by one company representative that the outage could be the largest one the company has ever had, and that it was related to network software.

Verizon Wireless spokesman Tom Pica confirmed that the outage occurred Friday afternoon and said service was restored within an hour. The outage affected South Dakota as well as St. Cloud and Rochester, Minn.

St. Cloud is north of Minneapolis, and Rochetser is south of the city.

Pica said that the problem was a software bug that had affected the carrier’s wireless network before being identified and taken care of. “It affected part of the network. We identified the problem, so we’ve got that covered now,” Pica said.

Source: RCR News