TELEPHONE SERVICE RESTORED: Phone service down in Linton, parts of Greene County

Around 2:30 p.m., landline and cell phone users reported their phone service was working again in the Linton area. Service in Daviess County was also reported to have been restored.

Around 2:15 p.m. AT&T Spokesperson Jackie Janus confirmed that technicians are currently working on the site and beginning to repair the break where a fiber optic line was cut earlier today.

"The cut was caused by a third-party contractor performing construction work earlier this morning," said Janus.

Janus said more details about the cut may be available later in the day.

"Right now, all of our efforts are focused on getting our customers back in service as quickly as possible," said Janus. "Service is expected to be restored later this afternoon.

Several areas in the southwestern Indiana region have been affected.

The communication outages are not affecting everyone in the county equally. The Linton area, and possibly Jasonville as well, seems to be experiencing more difficulty than other towns in the county.

Credit and debit cards are being accepted and it's business as usual in Bloomfield at the Bloomfield IGA and the Pamida Store and in Worthington at Vest's QuikMart and Subway and the Worthington Country Market.

Lyons Town Clerk-Treasurer Kim Flynn said she has placed outgoing calls and received incoming calls from the Lyons area as well as from Sandborn, Loogootee and Indianapolis but Town Marshal Ron Sparks has had difficulty reaching law enforcement in Daviess County. Flynn said she is unable to get any calls through to numbers in Linton.

AT&T cell phone service in the Linton area is still not working but many AT&T cell phone users say they are receiving signals at most other locations in the county.

The gates of Crane NSWC remain open for business as usual. The Public Affairs office said the Crane facility has not been affected by the widespread communication problems in the rest of the area and there are no expectations that the base would be closed.

Updates:

Around 11 a.m., the Linton Police Department issued the following announcement through their Nixle alert service: Many major (cell phone) lines are currently down in Linton. You can contact us on 812-847-4411 if 911 will not go through.AT&T is currently having phone line issues. Local phones or land lines are currently working however some 911 lines are out of operation. To contact us in an emergency call 812-847-4411 if your call will not go through on 911. This has affected many cell phones as well. If there is any more major changes we will let you know...

Around 12 p.m. a dispatcher at the Greene County Sheriff's Department said they were still unable to make outgoing calls on landlines, but they have been receiving 911 calls all morning. Although the communication problems have affected law enforcement's 800-mhz radio system, other radios are working fine and officers are able to communicate with the department. The Sheriff's Department also reported they have established a radio contact to the Linton Police Department.

The Linton area is without some telephone service today (as of Thursday morning) and other areas of the county may also be experiencing problems.

The Linton Police Department was contacted by AT&T as a courtesy this morning to fill the department in on what's going on with the lines.

According to an LPD dispatcher, AT&T is experiencing trouble with its fiberoptics and calls can't be made in and out of the immediate Linton area -- both cellphones and land lines.

Calls from a Linton land line to another Linton land line are working for some.

As for 911 calls, LPD has two trunks that service 911 -- one from Kokomo and the other from Evansville. AT&T informed the LPD that the trunk from Evansville is cut near Vincennes. The LPD, though, is still capable of receiving 911 calls because the other trunk is working properly.

The dispatcher said that as of 10:30 a.m. AT&T doesn't know where the problem is with the fiberoptic land line.

That line also is affecting some computers, including Linton banks, the dispatcher reported.

Callers outside the Linton area have reported they receive a busy signal when they try to call numbers in Linton.

In Worthington, some people are reporting they are receiving calls but are unable to call out.

A dispatcher at the Greene County Sheriff's Department also said they are unable to call out, but they are receiving 911 calls.

This report will be updated when more information becomes available.