Verizon Wireless outage in Abilene?

How many of you have been having trouble with your Verizon (formerly Alltel) service? I've noticed over the past month or so that the signal goes out on a fairly regular basis. It usually happens late at night, but sometimes happens during the day too. The bars go to one, none, or no service in areas of town where there is normally a full strength signal. As a customer, I have been unable to get any straight answers from the company. I also tried calling as a reporter for KTAB/KRBC and didn't get any response.

I'm writing this to find out what your experience has been. I'm sure it's a network outage because all of our phones at the station go out (and come back) at exactly the same time.

I'm just as stumped as all of you probably are. I hope to report the cause and fix of the problem ASAP. Post your reply describing any problems you've been having. I think it's happening across the Big Country. I'm curious to find out how wide-spread the problem is.

One thing the company did tell me is to have all of you call customer service. If more people call, it makes it easier for them to track the problem down. You have to call from a phone other than the one having problems, though, because they will want to do some troubleshooting. They can't do that if you are talking to them on the phone in question.