Inland Cellular Experiences Voice, Text Service Outage

LEWISTON—On August 10, a large fire on the top of Lewiston Hill damaged Inland Cellular’s infrastructure, causing a significant loss of service to a large area affecting several counties, including Columbia and Walla Walla.

Inland reports that their voice and text services are not operating. However, their 4G LTE and 3G data services are working and operational.

In a press release Inland Cellular said that until services are restored, customers will be unable to dial 911 in the event of an emergency. The company recommends using a land line whenever possible. If this is not possible, customers can use one of the applications listed below, or contact a friend or family member using another service (i.e Verizon or Sprint) who can contact emergency services.

Inland said its disaster recovery team has been working around the clock to get voice and text messaging services are restored. However, they do not have an estimate of when restoration of services will occur. The company asks that customers continue to check their voice and text services periodically.

Customers’ phones can be used to call or message over LTE or WIFI, the company reports. Messaging apps that can be used include Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts.