Staff report

Local CTC customers were without phone and Internet services for about an hour Tuesday.

A company spokesman said there was a problem with a switching station.

Andy Aldrich, a spokesman for CT Communications, said that while most affected customers were without phone services for about an hour, some did without for closer to four hours.

Aldrich said there are no numbers available as to how many customers were affected.

When an Internet switch fails, many different data signals have to share the same range of frequencies, causing the network to become congested.

A network with a large number of computers on the same segment will often have a lot of these “traffic jams,” Aldrich said.

County Information System Director David Boling said several county offices experienced service problems, including the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office and telecommunications.

He said his department had problems placing and receiving calls. Employees were still able to make internal calls.

Boling said phone service was restored before lunch Tuesday. The Salisbury Police Department reported no phone complications.