Verizon wireless outage Affects Portland, Salem

At around 6:30 a.m. Verizon Wireless users have been having cell phone connection problems affecting customers in Portland and Salem on June 18, 2014.

Verizon's dispatchers in the Willamette Valley Communications Center affirmed that some Verizon customers who are located in the Salem area may be unable to dial 911 for emergency services. They are advicing customers to use land line phones or cellphones from different carriers to dial 911.

Verizon said that the outage was impacting other carriers as well and was a result of a cut Sprint fiber line located South of Portland.

At around 8:01 a.m., Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency in Portland announced that the Verizon outage appears to be resolved.

Fox 12 in Portland is also reporting that a Verizon representative has confirmed the outage is fixed.

Verizon Powerful Answers

"Powerful Answers" contest was launched last January 2013. It was created by McGarryBowen. Verizon offered $10 million in prizes to persons who can find the solutions to "the world's biggest challenges" by making use of Verizon's cloud, broadband, and wireless networks.

The winners of the contest were announced at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas by Verizon Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam.

Here are the 15 winners:

Education: BridgingApps, WebTeam Corporation, TinyTap (Israel), WomenLEAD, Zapatilism
- BridgingApps the winner in the Verizon Powerful Answers Award for Education won $700,000.

Healthcare: Factor 14, Freenome, Portable Vision Examination, Solar Ear, Seratis

Sustainability: Bandwagon, Good360, Mosaic (Oakland, California), Semios, Smartster

Verizon said that there are more than 1,300 entries, the Powerful Answers Award winners were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company said the winners were selected by panels of judges with significant expertise in each of the three focus areas healthcare, education and sustainability.

The 15 winning ideas range from solutions to help manage donations in the aftermath of natural disasters, to a solution that allows healthcare providers to use smartphones to track and manage patient care, to a business simulation app designed to help students with financial literacy.