Jamestown (CSi) From Stutsman County Emergency Manager, Jerry Bergquist…. CenturyLink completed repairs to the cable cut at 3:11 a.m. Wednesday with all area 9-1-1 traffic being re-routed back to Stutsman County Communications in Jamestown.

The location of the cable cut is not known to us at this time.  CenturyLink may have follow up information available sometime today.

He says, at approximately 3:40 p.m. Tuesday, CenturyLink reported an outage that created a loss of long distance service in the Jamestown and Stutsman County area.  The loss of long distance service meant that anyone dialing 9-1-1 could not get through to the Stutsman County Communications Center.  At about 5:40 p.m. CenturyLink verified that a cable cut had occurred between Fargo and Jamestown which was the reason for the outage.

Almost immediately 9-1-1 calls originating from either a cell phone or a Dakota Central Telecommunications (Daktel) customer were re-routed to State Radio in Bismarck where they were answered.  Pertinent information was conveyed back to Stutsman County via cell phone.  It was early evening before 9-1-1 calls originating from a CenturyLink customer could also be re-routed to State Radio.  It’s believed at this time that no incoming reports of emergency situations were missed.

During the early portion of the outage, CenturyLink customers could only talk to CenturyLink customers, Daktel customers could only talk to Daktel customers, and cell phone customers could only talk to cell phone customers.  Long distance calls could not be made utilizing a land-line phone, but long distance calls could be completed via a cell phone.

From Stutsman County Facebook:

Cable Cut Disrupts Phone Service

At approximately 3:40 p.m. today (8-14-18), CenturyLink reported an outage that created a loss of long distance service in the Jamestown and Stutsman County area. The loss of long distance service meant that anyone dialing 9-1-1 could not get through to the Stutsman County Communications Center. At about 5:40 p.m. CenturyLink verified that a cable cut had occurred between Fargo and Jamestown which was the reason for the outage.

Almost immediately 9-1-1 calls originating from either a cell phone or a Dakota Central Telecommunications (Daktel) customer were re-routed to State Radio in Bismarck where they were answered. Pertinent information was conveyed back to Stutsman County via cell phone. It was early evening before 9-1-1 calls originating from a CenturyLink customer could also be re-routed to State Radio. It’s believed at this time that no incoming reports of emergency situations were missed.

During the early portion of the outage, CenturyLink customers could only talk to CenturyLink customers, Daktel customers could only talk to Daktel customers, and cell phone customers could only talk to cell phone customers. Long distance calls could not be made utilizing a land-line phone, but long distance calls could be completed via a cell phone.

It’s anticipated the cable cut will not be fully repaired until sometime after midnight. Once repairs are completed, all 9-1-1 traffic for the Stutsman County area will be re-routed back to Stutsman County Communications in Jamestown.