Weatherphone Service Could Be Coming To An End In Chattanooga

  • Thursday, July 29, 2021

Remember when you called a number at American National Bank using your rotary phone and found out the time of day, temperature and weather forecast.

Chattanoogan Pat Wilson noted, "My children learned to use the phone by dialing that once-familiar number."

Well, that service is still around in Chattanooga, but maybe not for long.

A spokesman for Weatherphone said the latest successor to American National no longer wants to sponsor the service.

He said it will go away unless a new sponsor is found.

Randall Hinton said, "Rather than killing the phone lines and taking the equipment to the landfill the bank is allowing us to try and locate someone to continue the, obviously, important service in Chattanooga during the next 30 days."

He gave these facts on the local service:

"We've provided the equipment for Chattanooga since before Trust Company of Georgia merged with Sun Banks of Florida to become Suntrust.

"There are between five and 10 phone lines at the bank to handle the fluctuating number of calls to 423-265-1411 which can spike higher than the top average of 5,000 per day.

"I have asked the bank to allow any new provider to use the existing equipment rather than having to buy new equipment.  The temporary Truist ID will be removed and a permanent ID will be made for the new provider.

"Since there shouldn't be any new equipment, the only initial cost will be about $300.00 for a new temperature sensor and wiring.  On-going costs will be whatever they are charged for their phone lines and $95 per month to us for the forecast service and certain repairs.

"It's been quite some time since ads were on the service, but spaces exist for several."


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