Sprint responds to claims of cellphone service issues in Otterville

A major cellphone provider released a statement acknowledging a problem with service in Mid-Missouri, however, it doesn’t agree with customers’ allegations.

Sprint customers in Otterville said they can’t get any service on their phones, even to dial 911. The problem started in June, and many customers tell ABC 17 News they can’t get the issue fixed.

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office said it is going to attempt to contact the company and mediate. Wednesday, the Attorney General’s Office said they have five complaints against the company.

Sprint corporate leaders said they were aware of problems with service Tuesday, and there might have been a few spotty outages. They said their systems aren’t showing the problems that Otterville residents are complaining about.

Residents say they are less than five miles from a Sprint tower and several of them said they can’t even call somebody sitting right next to them.

Sprint released a statement to ABC 17 News on Wednesday:

“Sprint is currently deploying Network Vision, a plan to use the latest, state-of-the-art equipment to help make customers’ wireless experience faster, clearer and easier. As part of this plan, equipment upgrades in some markets may cause temporary service disruptions. That’s what happened with two cell sites serving Otterville last night and this morning. We restored service this morning at 11 a.m. We regret the inconvenience to our customers, but we look forward to serving them with our upgraded network.”

Company officials said all networks have been working, except for Tuesday and early Wednesday. They don’t agree with claims that customers have been having problems since June.

Sprint said there’s a possibility the network has had some short-term problems, but they don’t believe it would last this long without being fixed. Also, when they do upgrades, customers could expect some inconvenience with the service.

Otterville residents say its scary because they can’t even call for help in emergencies. They told ABC 17 News that Sprint still has not fixed the problem as of Wednesday night.