Green Bay-based Cellcom as of the afternoon of May 15 continues to work to restore voice and text services, an outage that has impacted local residents, businesses and schools.
“Our top priority is restoring services for all customers as quickly and safely as possible. We know this isn’t just an inconvenience — for many, it’s impacting work, family, safety, and daily life,” the statement posted at 12:14 p.m. May 15 said.
In an update after 6 p.m. May 15, the company said, “What initially appeared to be a short-term problem has become a more complex challenge, requiring additional time to resolve. Our teams, alongside key partners, are working tirelessly around the clock to restore voice and SMS services.”
The outage began sometime on the night of May 14. Just after 11 p.m., Cellcom posted on Facebook that an outage was affecting its voice network. The outage continued the morning of May 15 and also appeared to affect basic text messaging, called SMS messages, as well.
“We are currently experiencing an outage affecting our voice network. Our team is actively working to resolve the issue and restore full service as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement. “We are updating customers via Facebook and via our website at Cellcom.com/service.”
After noon on May 15, the company posted an update thanking customers for their patience as it continues to work to restore service.
Some of the impacts of the outage include school districts, businesses and local governments. Door County Emergency Management posted on May 15 that the outage was affecting Door County government‘s non-emergency phone service, though 911 emergency service remains available. The Ashwaubenon School District’s website indicates inbound and outbound calls are unavailable at this time while the Florence County School District in northern Wisconsin directed people to email the district. Tolan Plumbing and HVAC, in Clintonville, was among the many businesses telling customers to use email or alternate methods like social media messaging platforms.
Emergency services calls to 911 remain available and unaffected by the outage, the company said.
The outage does not affect data or messages sent via Apple’s iMessage, Rich Communication Service (RCS) messages, so customers should still be able to use those services to communicate. Cellcom’s outage update web page includes links that can help you turn on such services.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Contact business reporter Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or[email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at@JeffBollier.

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