Verizon completes $3 million upgrade

 PRINCETON — A $3 million upgrade has been completed at the Verizon central office in Princeton to benefit customers in Bureau County and the surrounding area.

Philip Wood, vice president of public affairs for Verizon in Illinois, said the upgrade included the installation of a new telephone switch for the Princeton office.

"For many customers, their phone line is a critical communications link, and our customers can feel confident knowing that Verizon is delivering them dependable phone service day in and day out," Wood said.

The new upgrade came as the result of the August 2007 flooding at Verizon's central office, when a sprinkler head broke inside the building and heavily damaged the system. According to reports at that time, telephone service was interrupted for an estimated 24,000 customers in the area.

At the time of the flooding, Verizon crews replaced the damaged parts of the switch, but the decision was made to install new equipment to improve reliability and reduce maintenance costs, Wood said.

The new switch serves more than 15,000 telephone lines in Bureau, Compton, Dover, Hennepin, Ladd, LaMoille, Mendota, Manlius, Ohio, Princeton, Putnam, Spring Valley, Tiskilwa, West Brooklyn, Walnut and Wyanet.

The $3 million investment at the Princeton office is Verizon's single largest project in Bureau County in recent years, Wood said. The digital switch is basically a large-scale computer which supplies dial tone and routs customer calls and data transmissions across telecommunication networks.

Verizon crews have worked on the upgrade project for the past several months. The new switch was activated Jan. 21, Wood said.

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