Phone problems continue in Portales

People in Portales began experiencing problems with phone service Thursday afternoon.

The PNT didn’t receive followup calls from Qwest or Yucca Telecom late Thursday seeking more information. Numbers the PNT had dialed earlier that weren’t working were back in service by press time, however.

Residents were reporting problems dialing some local numbers but not others. Long distance and calls placed from cell phones to local numbers seemed to be unaffected, according residents the PNT talked with.

“We’ve found out that Yucca is working on the problem,” said Portales Police Capt. Lonnie Berry.

Berry said that in experiments his department had run calls from numbers with Yucca service to another number with Yucca service were not working.

At Eastern New Mexico University a mass e-mail to staff from the university’s telecommunications department reported that the numbers affected were apparently those that had been changed to Yucca from Qwest. The e-mail said that Qwest was notifying Yucca and would keep Eastern informed of the progress.

Gary Younger, with Qwest public relations, told the PNT at 4 p.m. Thursday that he didn’t have reports on any problem in Portales.

“911 is working but I’m keeping a close tab on it in case our lines go down,” Berry said.

A person answering the after-hours phone at Yucca Telecom, contacted shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday said he didn’t have any further information but said technicians were working on the problem.