The Woodward News

Local News

May 10, 2009

Woodward now has redundancy system

Woodward will no longer be cut off from the rest of the country.

This was the message sent during a luncheon held at the Northwestern Oklahoma State University-Woodward campus.

The luncheon was sponsored by the Woodward Industrial Foundation and celebrated the completion of a redundancy telephone system by AT&T; and Pioneer Telephone.

The redundancy line will ensure that if AT&T;’s primary fiber-optic cable between Enid and Woodward goes out of service, calls can still be made outside of the city.

The calls will be transferred on Pioneer Telephone’s line, which runs south through Seiling.

If the Pioneer line has a problem, then their phone calls will be routed through AT&T;’s line.

“Today we are here to see progress,” said LaVern Phillips, president of the Industrial Foundation.

Three years ago the possibility of expanding phone service for a redundancy line was not economically viable Phillips said.

It was not until two people, new in their jobs, came together that something began to happen.

In July 2008 AT&T; Oklahoma named Bryan Gonterman their president. A few months later Dana Murphy became Oklahoma Corporation commissioner.

The two met and Murphy asked why there was nothing being done about the redundancy problem in Woodward.

Gonterman said he would look into the problem. At a State Chamber of Commerce meeting Gonterman spoke to Pioneer Telephone General Manager Richard Ruhl about doing something.

The two worked out the problems and a few weeks ago work was completed on the redundancy line.

“It’s nice to see big and small companies work together,” said Murphy.

One of the reasons why the two companies were able to work together so well is because of the support the state legislators from Northwestern Oklahoma gave.

As a thank you, City Manager Allen Riffel presented Murphy, Gonterman, Phillips, Sen. Bryce Marlatt, Rep. Gus Blackwell, Rep. Jeff Hickman and Rep. Mike Sanders with resolutions, complete with a piece of fiber-optic cable.

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