EVERETT – When Harry Cushing tried to dial long-distance to Florida over the weekend, he got a recorded message saying all circuits were busy.
The first couple of times it happened Saturday, it was an annoyance. By Monday, still without long-distance service, Cushing was steamed. He still couldn’t place any long-distance calls from his home phone as of mid-day.
“This is now the third day we’ve encountered this problem, and it’s still not fixed,” the Everett resident said on his phone answering machine, which had a recorded message aimed at Verizon.
The culprit was a glitch within trunk lines, phone lines that connect the company’s switching systems within the area, said Kevin Laverty, Verizon’s regional spokesman in Everett. He couldn’t say exactly how many customers might be affected, though it didn’t appear to be a large number.
“We’ve had … 34 customers who’ve called in since late Friday on this. It appears to be a trunking issue, and we’re working to resolve it,” he said.
He said the nature of the problem made it harder for technicians to pin down.
“If you make the call, and your trunk is not working, you would get the all-circuits-busy signal. On the other hand, your neighbor might be on another trunk and not have that same issue.” Laverty said. “So what we’re working with on a customer-by-customer basis is to check this out and make sure that they are able to make calls.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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