Severed cable stymies cell phone users

Many of Southeast Missouri's cell phones were rendered useless for several hours Thursday when a signal tower went dead.

A local Cingular Wireless spokesman said a severed cable caused the outage. He directed all other questions to the St. Louis office, where voice mail messages went unreturned.

Some Verizon customers reported problems as well.

Service was restored by late Thursday afternoon.

Earlier this year, representatives of the four companies serving Cape Girardeau County said 22 percent of county residents use cell phones.