CNS telephone customers in all communities began experiencing trouble with their telephone service Monday afternoon that was a result of a larger outage that impacted 29 areas in Georgia. The issues were first reported around 3:30 p.m. and were resolved at 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 20th. According to Don Atkinson, Chief Executive Officer, the disruption was due to damage in an upstream provider’s facilities.
“While CNS provides our local telephone service, we must lease interconnect facilities from a larger, national provider,” said Atkinson. “When there is damage upstream from us such as this, it impacts all providers who connect their local telephone service through that facility.”
Atkinson said that the disruption was related to fiber damage on a main carrier path south of Atlanta. “Much like the Internet, telephone connection comes to us locally from a central hub where many larger carriers own facilities. These facilities then network out across the globe, which allows you to make and receive calls from anywhere in the world,” he explained. “It functions somewhat like an Interstate highway; when there is an accident and traffic backs up, nobody can get anywhere until the issue is cleared and the lanes are open and running smoothly again.”
During the outage, CNS customers could make telephone calls within the local network, but were not able to make or receive calls to numbers serviced by other providers, including cellular telephone providers. “We understand this was frustrating for our customers. To complicate the situation, many customers experienced difficulty reporting their outage, particularly if they were calling from a cell phone,” said Sarah Baggett, Marketing Manager. “Reporting was also impacted by busy PBX trunk lines, which were the result of a great deal of traffic hitting local lines within our network.”
Connectivity to CNS customers has been restored. “If a customer is still experiencing an issue with their service, he or she should reboot their modem,” said Baggett. “Customers can also reach out to our Technical Support team for assistance. Technicians are on standby and are happy to help.” CNS Technical Support can be reached in each city by calling the following numbers: Thomasville – 227-7001, Cairo – 307-0332, Camilla/Baconton/Pelham – 336-7856, and Moultrie/Doerun/Norman Park – 985-5400.
“Providing reliable service to our customers is our highest priority,” said Atkinson. “We’ve taken all steps necessary to ensure that our network is strong. We are supported by outstanding engineers, technicians and support staff who serve our local communities proudly. While we regret that our local service was impacted, we remain committed to delivering excellent service to each CNS customer.”