Ameren Offers Outage Info On Mobile Devices

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Ameren Corp. customers in Illinois and Missouri who lose electricity to their homes and business can turn to their handheld devices for updates on outages.

The St. Louis-based utility says users of the wireless updates known as ameren.mobi can report an outage from devices such as BlackBerries, Palm Pilots and iPhones. They also can see outage information by county and zip codes.

Ameren President and Chief Executive Thomas Voss says consumers increasingly are dependent on mobile devices for Internet access and that ameren.mobi addresses that need.

Ameren has 2.4 million electric customers in the two states, half of them in Illinois.