Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2001 12:12 pm
Something many of you may be interested in...
NETWORKS DAMAGED: Southern Manhattan has been described as "the most communications-intensive area in the world."
Verizon, the largest telephone company, has five Central Offices serving some 500,000 telephone lines south of 14th Street. More than six million private circuits and data lines pass through switching centres in or near the World Trade Center.
AT&T and Sprint switching centres in the WTC were destroyed.
Verizon lost two WTC-specific switches in the towers, and two nearby Central Offices were knocked out by debris, fire, and water damage.
Ten Verizon Wireless cell sites were destroyed in the attack; Cingular Wireless lost six and Sprint PCS lost four. Power
failures interrupted service at many other wireless facilities.
The combination of damage and loss of power shut down all wireline phone service in and around the disaster area. It is very likely that underground cables were badly damaged, and no one can yet provide any estimate of when anything approaching normal service will be restored.
TELECOM TRAFFIC SOARS: In general, telephone networks continued operating, although heavy call volumes, ranging up to 400% of normal, caused delays for both wireline and wireless callers in New York and Washington. AT&T said its network carried a record 431 million calls on September 11. Long distance carriers were able to route most traffic around the devastated cities.
Internet traffic also soared. E-mail generally operated well, but major news sites on the Web were overwhelmed, with response times slowing to several minutes in some cases.
In Canada, Aliant reported "unprecedented increases in usage" and asked customers to restrict use of long distance, wireless, and Internet to emergencies.
TELECOM INDUSTRY RESPONDS: Much of the telecom industry's response has focused on providing emergency communications services.
A few examples:
** AT&T Wireless, Nextel, Sprint PCS, Cingular, and Verizon made thousands of cellphones and free service available to emergency service workers. Iridium and Motient donated satellite phones.
** Verizon installed hundreds of phone lines in hospitals, police stations, and temporary work centres, and made local calls from 4,000 Manhattan street payphones free for the duration of the emergency. The payphones have also been converted to accept incoming calls.
** Sprint PCS stores in New York have provided free emergency calling, and Sprint programmed its payphones in New York City to allow free calls.
** AT&T donated $10 million in prepaid long distance cards to relief workers in the two cities and is providing free long distance service from all payphones in the affected
areas of New York.
** RIM and Cingular donated RIM wireless e-mail devices and service. Metrocall offered 5,000 pagers to emergency and government workers.
=============================================
Bat
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Bat Wing on 2001-09-17 16:15 ]</font>
NETWORKS DAMAGED: Southern Manhattan has been described as "the most communications-intensive area in the world."
Verizon, the largest telephone company, has five Central Offices serving some 500,000 telephone lines south of 14th Street. More than six million private circuits and data lines pass through switching centres in or near the World Trade Center.
AT&T and Sprint switching centres in the WTC were destroyed.
Verizon lost two WTC-specific switches in the towers, and two nearby Central Offices were knocked out by debris, fire, and water damage.
Ten Verizon Wireless cell sites were destroyed in the attack; Cingular Wireless lost six and Sprint PCS lost four. Power
failures interrupted service at many other wireless facilities.
The combination of damage and loss of power shut down all wireline phone service in and around the disaster area. It is very likely that underground cables were badly damaged, and no one can yet provide any estimate of when anything approaching normal service will be restored.
TELECOM TRAFFIC SOARS: In general, telephone networks continued operating, although heavy call volumes, ranging up to 400% of normal, caused delays for both wireline and wireless callers in New York and Washington. AT&T said its network carried a record 431 million calls on September 11. Long distance carriers were able to route most traffic around the devastated cities.
Internet traffic also soared. E-mail generally operated well, but major news sites on the Web were overwhelmed, with response times slowing to several minutes in some cases.
In Canada, Aliant reported "unprecedented increases in usage" and asked customers to restrict use of long distance, wireless, and Internet to emergencies.
TELECOM INDUSTRY RESPONDS: Much of the telecom industry's response has focused on providing emergency communications services.
A few examples:
** AT&T Wireless, Nextel, Sprint PCS, Cingular, and Verizon made thousands of cellphones and free service available to emergency service workers. Iridium and Motient donated satellite phones.
** Verizon installed hundreds of phone lines in hospitals, police stations, and temporary work centres, and made local calls from 4,000 Manhattan street payphones free for the duration of the emergency. The payphones have also been converted to accept incoming calls.
** Sprint PCS stores in New York have provided free emergency calling, and Sprint programmed its payphones in New York City to allow free calls.
** AT&T donated $10 million in prepaid long distance cards to relief workers in the two cities and is providing free long distance service from all payphones in the affected
areas of New York.
** RIM and Cingular donated RIM wireless e-mail devices and service. Metrocall offered 5,000 pagers to emergency and government workers.
=============================================
Bat
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Bat Wing on 2001-09-17 16:15 ]</font>