Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id DAA20028; Sun, 9 May 1999 03:56:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 03:56:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <199905090756.DAA20028@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: TELECOM Digest V19 #76 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 May 99 03:56:00 EDT Volume 19 : Issue 76 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson The Day the Telephone Company Burned Down (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Telrad Key BX Info Needed - REWARD OFFERED! (Brian Cox) Which Cellular Provider Allows US and European Connectivity? (Chas Conn) Ancient Sprint (John R. Levine) Re: 90# "Feature" on Your Phone? (Jeffrey M. Vinocur) Re: "Internet Pioneers" (Craig Partridge) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copywrited. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occassional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 765 Junction City, KS 66441-0765 Phone: 415-520-9905 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe/unsubscribe: subscriptions@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 02:13:21 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: The Day the Telephone Company Burned Down Eleven years ago this week -- the second Sunday in May, 1988, also commonly known as Mother's Day was the day that it happened. One of the worst telecom disasters in history; the fire at the Ameritech (then still mostly known as Illinois Bell) central office in Hinsdale, Illinois. Although the fire in New York City about 1974 was very bad also, the central office there did not have as many functions and duties as the one in Chicago. Let's take a look at the Telecom Archives (http://telecom-digest.org) and see what appeared in this Digest about the fire. ----------------------------- Below are issues of the Digest during May, 1988 which specifically commented on the Illinois Bell/Hinsdale, IL fire on May 8, 1988 which caused extensive damage to phone service in northern Illinois during May/June, 1988. Service was largely restored by the end of May. The digests below are only the ones immediatly afterward. An occassional article appeared during June as well. TELECOM Digest Tuesday, May 10, 1988 8:04PM Volume 8, Issue 75 Today's Topics: Re: (none) (really Maryland +1 dialing) Continuously Ringing Telephone (on VHF) Submission for comp-dcom-telecom Running out of area codes Re: "Party" lines Chicago telco disaster? "Party Lines" -------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Chicago telco disaster? Date: 10 May 88 16:40:10 GMT I have been trying to call an exchange in Chicago for the past two days to no avail. A recording states that "Due to local telephone company problems in the area you are calling, your call cannot be completed. Please try again later". After a few calls to the AT&T operator and their long distance repair number, I finally found out that an Illinois Bell building serving the Chigago area caught fire and there was serious damage. I'm told that hundreds of exchanges are affected. (!!) Calls via MCI, Sprint, etc. also came up with similar results, just different recordings. From what I understand, Ill. Bell is working on the re-routing of calls through the office that burned, and service *may* be restored by Wednesday. Anyone else have any info. regarding this? Is this similar to the fire that hit the CO in New York City a couple years ago? I thought that disasters like these were preventable to a large extent by using halon and other measures... How can something of this degree occur with relatively modern equipment? Enough questions, I'm just curious.. A posting to this newsgroup would probably be most appropriate for discussion. Thanks for sharing! David M. Kurtiak UNC - Greensboro UUCP: dmkdmk@ecsvax.UUCP {decvax,rutgers,gatech}!mcnc!ecsvax!dmkdmk Bitnet: DMKDMK@ECSVAX.BITNET (mail ONLY) Internet: dmkdmk@ecsvax.uncecs.edu ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest Tuesday, May 10, 1988 10:36PM Volume 8, Issue 76 Today's Topics: Central Office Fire in Chicago The Great Fire Re: Continuously Ringing Telephone (on VHF) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: Central Office Fire in Chicago Date: Sun May 8 21:13:57 1988 A fire Sunday, May 8 caused severe damage at the Illinois Bell switching center in Hinsdale, IL. Hinsdale is a western suburb of Chicago. As of this posting (11:00 PM Central time) the entire center is off-line, and nearly one hundred thousand subscribers in the west suburban area served from the Hinsdale office are without phone service. There is no estimate at this time as to when service to the affected communities will be restored. The Hinsdale office is also responsible for communications relating to air traffic control between Midway and Ohare Airports in Chicago and the FAA Center in Aurora, IL. Consequently, voice communications between control locations which depended on landline phones has been severely disrupted. Many airlines whose reservation systems are located in other cities also have foreign exchange service through the Hinsdale office, and this has been halted. The fire was struck about an hour after it started, but damage estimates are not yet available, nor specific plans made for the restoration of service to the affected area. Another update will be posted as soon as I have specifics. You can hear more precise reports by calling the internal employee newsline at the General Headquarters Building -- The Illinois Bell Communicator - 312-368-8000 Calls to the affected area at the present time are being intercepted with a recording 'all circuits are busy now'. ------------------------------ From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: The Great Fire Date: Mon May 9 23:19:29 1988 In my earlier posting, details were very sparse and I was unable to be specific in describing the disaster which struck us here over the weekend. I now have a more detailed accounting for the net -- An extra alarm fire broke out Sunday, May 8 at 5:30 PM in the Illinois Bell Central Office, 120 North Lincoln Avenue, Hinsdale, Illinois. At the time of the fire, the Chicago area, and the west suburbs in particular, were experiencing a very bad electrical storm. There had been a great deal of lightning; rain was quite heavy, and winds were about 40 miles per hour. Fire Departments from 15 nearby communities battled the blaze before bringing it under control at about 8:30 PM. The fire was officially struck at 11:30 PM Sunday night. Deemed the worst disaster in the history of Illinois Bell, and one of the worst disasters ever in the telephone industry, the fire virtually gutted the two story building. The Hinsdale central office is a *major* switching center for the west suburban area. In addition to serving ten prefixes covering various communities including Oak Brook, Westmont, Darien, Hinsdale and others, the office housed the Directory Assistance Data Base for downstate Illinois; it served as the communications apex for air traffic control between Ohare, Midway, and the Aurora, IL aviation center; it was the headquarters for a majority of the cellular phone service in the greater Chicago area; *and* it handled long distance calls in and out of most of Dupage County, Will County and southern Cook County. *And the office is now almost gutted* The reason for the fire has not been detirmined, but fire department officials have reason to believe the building was struck by a tremendous bolt of lightning during the worst of the electrical storm which was in progress when the first fire alarms were called in at 5:30 PM. The fire caused another problem: the emission of toxic fumes which required the evacuation of several blocks of homes in the vicinity. These fumes came from batteries described as 'highly toxic' which were stored in the premises and a large amount of fiber optic cable. The Hinsdale office was very much a fiber optic center in the area. Because of the toxic release, at one point firemen working in the building had to be called out, in the interest of their own safety, and as firemen relieved each other working inside in ten to fifteen minute shifts, they were required to strip to their underwear and be hosed down with a special solution so that the contamination would not be carried elsewhere. After the fire was first reported, Illinois Bell employees on duty at the time followed company procedures by first notifying the Fire Department. Others then began fighting the fire, and a few began a process known as an emergency telephone tree, calling other employees and company management at home to notify them of the circumstances. Each employee thus notified was responsible for calling a few more employees. Within about an hour, while the fire was raging at its worst, several dozen employees had already gathered on location, waiting for a go ahead to begin clean up and restoration work. *But no one dreamed it would be nearly as bad as it was* Although the fire was struck at 11:30 PM, fire officials would not permit anyone to enter the building for several more hours, pending exhaustion of the toxic fumes. Illinois Bell employees were allowed access to the building beginning at 4:00 AM to survey the damage. Most of Monday was spent merely bailing out the water and removing the rubble from the fire. Emergency lighting was installed and cleaning crews began scrubbing soot from the walls, ceilings and floors. The cleanup was still in progress late Monday afternoon. At this writing (12:50 AM Tuesday, May 10), Illinois Bell has not announced any date that service will be restored. It is estimated that it will be at least 4-5 days before *emergency* service is restored. Hinsdale, you see, is also the main center for 911 services in over a dozen west suburban communities. Ordinarily in circumstances like this, the phone company will set up special phones in public areas. They will often times be mobile or cellular type instruments available for the public to use for emergency calls. But since Hinsdale *is* the cellular center for Chicago, even this option is not available. When the first firemen arrived on the scene, heavy black smoke was pouring out of all the windows on the first floor. By that time, employees were evacuating after having given up on their own emergency proceedures. What we are faced with now is a *major* traffic jam on the network in the Chicago area. Long distance calls in and out of the area are very sluggish in getting through. Directory Enquiry in downstate Illinois is only able to handle about ten percent of the calls they are receiving, those being requests that are being searched manually through paper directories on hand in the communities affected. Hinsdale was the major center for MCI/Sprint long distance also....and those services are severely crippled in the area. Obviously, data transmission lines and the like are dead. About 40,000 subscribers, representing 100,000 residents are without phone service for the indefinite future. In Hinsdale and the other communities affected, the Police Departments have stationed patrol cars a few blocks apart on the street, and residents have been told to go to the nearest police car to report emergencies. Illinois Bell has not announced -- as of Monday evening -- any schedule of priorities for restoration of service. Jim Eibel, vice president of operations for Illinois Bell said emergency phones would be set up within a day or two, when crews were able to reroute at least limited traffic through the LaGrange, IL center. Of equal importance of course is the restoration of 911 service, and the restoration of long distance service. Eibel said restoring service to the ten prefixes in the area, which would return regular phone service to local residents would probably not occur for 'several' days. Naturally, cellular service also has to be placed in the table of priorities somewhere. About fifty percent of the cellular service in the entire Chicago area is out right now due to the fire. Other Bell companies around the nation have responded by dispatching emergency crews to come to the aid of Illinois Bell, and these out of town crews will remain on site for several weeks as needed. In addition, while the fire was in progress, executives from MCI and Sprint met with their counterparts from Illinois Bell on location and immediatly offered their full assistance and cooperation during the period of turmoil we will be facing for the next several weeks. For up to the minute announcements during the next several days, it is recommended that you call a special recorded announcement service for company employees. Called the 'Illinois Bell Communicator', this recorded announcement will be updated 4-5 times daily, and can be recieved by dialing 312-368-8000, a number at IBT Chicago Headquarters Building. It goes without saying on this forum that everyone is requested to avoid making all but emergency calls into the Chicago west suburban area for at least the next several days. And if your call is met with an 'all circuits busy' message, kindly refrain from repeated dialing attempts, as this simply clogs the network even worse. A further update will be posted here when I have news available. The last fire to occur in a telephone center was in Manhattan a few years ago. You may recall the resulting damage and confusion from that situation. The last fire *in the Chicago area* occurred in the River Grove, IL central office in 1946...then an all manual exchange. Unlike that fire, considered bad at the time, the fire in Hinsdale this past weekend was many times worse, since Hinsdale is responsible not only for its local calling area but so many of the overall network services for the Chicago area. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Saturday, May 14, 1988 1:31AM Volume 8, Issue 78 Today's Topics: Re: Chicago telco disaster? link between internet and MCImail Continuously Ringing Phone Re: Continuously Ringing Telephone (on VHF) Re: (none) (really Maryland +1 dial From: netsys!len@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Len Rose) Subject: Re: Chicago telco disaster? Date: 12 May 88 00:15:27 GMT Reply-To: netsys!len@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Len Rose) I also noted that many of our 800 calls are now being affected. Repeated calls to the ATT repair line,have revealed that no one knows when they will be back online.. So much for the damned Bell System breakup.. Len Rose - len@ames.arc.nasa.gov TELECOM Digest Monday, May 16, 1988 8:44PM Volume 8, Issue 79 Today's Topics: proposed rate cut in western Fairfax Co., Va. Fiber optics Five-Year Plan TOLLS/LOCAL CALLS 2600? Hinsdale - Wednesday night update ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: Hinsdale - Wednesday night update Date: Wed May 11 17:14:34 1988 The cleanup and service restoration goes on, slowly it seems, yet an overview shows tremendous progress at the Illinois Bell Hinsdale Central Office, in the wake of the disasterous fire Sunday night which gutted what IBT has termed 'one of the four super centers in the Chicago area'. Bell officials have still given no date for the complete restoration of service. The closest estimate is 'several days - perhaps another week'. Wednesday brought these accomplishments -- Five additional emergency telephone centers were installed in various areas. In addition to the center located outside the burned out building at 120 N. Lincoln Street, the huge communication trailers have been moved into shopping malls and near the City Hall. These centers are operating and attended 24 hours per day. Calls are placed free of charge for anyone with urgent business. The calls are limited to a few minutes and two calls per person. The users are then requested to go to the back of the line(s) and wait their turn again. The one center open on Tuesday was literally swamped for hours with hundreds of people waiting in several lines, snaking their way forward to the phones. Illinois Bell attendants rushed around taking notes and helping the customers establish connections. The five additional centers opened on Wednesday should relieve the crowding. Moving vans and trailer trucks blocked Lincoln for several blocks Tuesday night and Wednesday. Each contained new equipment and supplies for the office which is literally being built from scratch. As a truck was unloaded, another vehicle moved up into its place. Two Greyound busses were parked nearby, serving as places for employees to eat, rest and clean up between work shifts. I was amazed to see a virtual ant-hill like atmosphere when passing by earlier today. Dozens of people were busy at their assigned tasks. Some were painting and cleaning. Others were installing lighting, air conditioning and such. Carpenters were working to intall doors and windows. Several people were working with circuit boards, assembly line fashion, passing them along to others. The main switch, which they had hoped to save, now looks like it will have to be replaced -- if not in its entirety, then with virtually one hundred percent new components. The corrosion and rust from the high humidity level of Sunday night and Monday are very evident. The work is going on 24 hours per day. Workers take breaks when they must. When they quit after several hours, others who had been eating/sleeping in the Greyhound busses take their places. Directory Assistance has been restored for everyone except in the immediate area. The data base was rerouted through another central office. Microwave dishes have been installed and are being used by the hospitals, police and fire departments in the troubled area. Although residents still have no phone service and must go out into the street to locate police help, the police are now able to communicate among themselves, as are the hospitals. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Illinois Bell employees visited schools and shopping malls throughout the area. School children were given notices to take to their parents giving the locations of the emergency communication centers. *Do Bell employees have dedication to their calling?* I would say so... the internal newsline for employees (Illinois Bell Communicator 312-368-8000) on Wednesday asked that, 'employees not specifically assigned to restoration should *NOT* come to the site to assist. The limited working space was already overcrowded with people, working in some cases only 2-3 feet apart from each other at their tasks. Yet show up they did, by the hundreds if it was otherwise their day off Tuesday or Wednesday. Some came after their regular work was done; some to assist in the public communications centers; others to man the rest/feeding busses. How badly has the fire hurt folks? Hardest hit are not the teenagers of the village of Hinsdale, as they would claim (smile), but the businesses which relied heavily on data services. 400 agents of the Illinois State Lottery are off line.... Several dozen ATM's serving the banks are off line.... Two major telemarking firms have closed 'for the duration', idleing several hundred employees.... Stock and Option guys are tearing their hair out..... Radio Shack reports that several hundred cellular units have been sold in the past two days...units that function on channels assigned to Bell's competitor and are in service.... I'll have more news for you tomorrow, and will continue to provide updates until the crisis has passed. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest Wednesday, May 18, 1988 10:44PM Volume 8, Issue 82 Today's Topics: Hinsdale - Thursday update Hinsdale Update (Friday) Special Spkr Phone wanted... More Fun With COCOTs From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: Hinsdale - Thursday update Date: Thu May 12 18:12:59 1988 Life goes on.... Jim Eibel, Vice President Operations for Illinois Bell announced a restoration schedule for Hinsdale at a press conference on Thursday. While the news was not pleasant, it probably is realistic. Until now, IBT had responded to inquiries about service restoration by saying, 'in a few days'. The switch has been abandoned. Due to extensive corrosion from the water damage the night of the fire, the switch cannot be salvaged. Replacement will take 10-14 days of technicians working around the clock. Residents of Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Darien and Oak Brook who have no service should not expect to have service restored until *near the end of the month*. About 35,000 subscribers, representing a population of 100,000 people in those communities will continue to use the emergency communication trailers set up about town until further notice. Most emergency requirements in the area have been met by rerouting through the LaGrange, IL center. Emergency service for hospitals, police and fire agencies and certain other government agencies is in place now, or will be by the evening of May 15. The long distance toll center operation at Hinsdale has been rerouted to other centers for the most part, and residents of the several south suburban communities who have been only able to make strictly local calls for the past week will have their full service restored by May 15, albeit under somewhat cramped network facilities. Pagers, beepers, cellular service and similar functions are largely restored and the restoration will be complete by the evening of May 15. Again, some network congestion is to be expected for at least a couple weeks until the Hinsdale office is fully operational once again. WAS THE DAMAGE INTENSIFIED BY IMPROPER EMERGENCY HANDLING? The [Chicago Sun Times] for Thursday, May 12 reported an interview with an 'unnamed executive of Bell' who gave a somewhat different accounting of the tragic events last Sunday. According to this source, the fire was first noted in Springfield, IL, when an emergency alarm was automatically tripped by the Hinsdale office. This was about 4:30 PM. A human being in Springfield called the duty supervisor for Hinsdale to ask what was going on. According to the newspaper report, by the time office personnell got around to calling the Fire Department, *the lines had already burned out* -- making the call impossible. A supervisor stuck his head out the door at a minute or two before 5 PM and told a passer by to please go to the Fire Department immediatly. Apparently the person did not do so. Finally someone -- as yet unknown or unnamed -- went to the police station in Hinsdale to report the fire at about 5:15 PM...by that time, the phones throughout the area had already been dead for half an hour. If this report is true, then there need to be some very serious discussions at corporate level to find out why local employees discovered the fire *after* someone downstate manning a computer terminal, and why it took another 45 minutes for someone to go to the Fire Department personally if necessary, to rouse the firemen. Bell executives would not comment on the [Sun Times] report. For most intents and purposes then, the word is that network services for the greater Chicago area will be restored in total by Sunday evening. Local residents will be brought up gradually over the next 10-14 days as the new switch is installed. Updates can be heard on the Illinois Bell Communicator: 312-368-8000 ------------------------------ From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: Hinsdale Update (Friday) Date: Fri May 13 20:54:36 1988 The plot seems to thicken.... Illinois Bell has tossed in the deck and said rehab of the old switch is impossible. Since they are getting a new one, they are going with a #5 ESS from AT&T which was delivered to the site on Friday afternoon. Working around the clock, they say it will be operational for most subscribers by the end of May, and for all subscribers by mid-June. Several additional emergency communication trailers have been installed in the area, bringing to eight the number of such locations in the west suburbs where calls can be made. In addition, various company facilities in the area have opened their doors to the public and installed several lines where calls can be made. (much information about timetable of Sunday deleted) TELECOM Digest Sunday, May 22, 1988 7:33PM Volume 8, Issue 84 Today's Topics: Re: TOLLS/LOCAL CALLS? Submission for comp-dcom-telecom Re: Mass 550 numbers --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu May 19 17:12:36 1988 From: mordor!lll-crg!lll-winken!ddsw1!karl@rutgers.edu (Karl Denninger) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Chicago telco disaster? Keywords: Great fire of '88?? Reply-To: karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc., Mundelein, IL In article <5058@ecsvax.UUCP> dmkdmk@UNCECS.EDU (David M. Kurtiak) writes: > I have been trying to call an exchange in Chicago for the past two days > to no avail. A recording states that "Due to local telephone company > problems in the area you are calling, your call cannot be completed. > Please try again later". After a few calls to the AT&T operator and Well, we're on the outside of Chicago, and luckily a good ways from the hub that burned. Illinois Bell's central office facilities in Hinsdale were nearly destroyed by fire May 8th. The building was gutted, all the equipment (read: the switch) is being replaced. They are currently re-wiring the building, top to bottom, and have stated that 30,000 of the 35,000 lines that were completely off the air now have a dialtone -- sometimes. IBT also openly admits that service will be spotty and horrid in general for some time (probably mid-June). The fire's exact cause is still undetermined, but it is believed that it started in one of the racks on the lower floor. In any event, it was over an *hour* from the time the first alarm was seen in Springfield's monitoring station until fire equipment arrived on the scene! The fire alarm was not locally connected, there was no halon or sprinkler system, and phones were already out by the time someone tried to call it in from the local area (about 20-30 minutes after the first indication of a problem). Our first indication that something was wrong was when we went to complete a wiring job on that Sunday PM and found that the cellular phones didn't work -- all throughout the city. The real fun and games began Monday, when we tried to contact some of our business customers -- and got nowhere. The situation is not nearly back to normal yet -- several of our clients still cannot dial or receive long distance calls, our service here (50 miles away) is spotty as well. It's very common to redial a call a dozen or more times before it goes through; the remaining capacity is badly overloaded. Today things seem better -- for the first time since the fire we got a normal news feed, a good sign that our computers (and humans) can once again reach each other by phone. It also seems a little better -- calls that were a "no chance" attempt a few days ago now go through after a half-dozen tries or so.... And my car-phone is working properly again. There are a few questions I want to ask of Illinois Bell: 1) Why was that building, which is (obviously) extremely important to the integrity of the network: a) Un-manned (a single person would have prevented this) b) Not have a fire alarm connected with local fire departments c) Have no fire-suppression system installed (yeah, Halon is expensive. How expensive is something like *this*?) 2) Who's going to pay for this obvious negligence. We the customers? 3) What is IBT going to do to *prevent* future occurrances? I believe that IBT should be forced to bear, without passing through, the cost of this disaster. As with other businesses who make mistakes, they should have to pay out of their own pockets (and/or insurance, if there was any -- somehow I doubt that there was considering that they didn't even bother with a local fire alarm!) (much deleted in 1999 reprint) Karl Denninger | Data: +1 312 566-8912 Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. | Voice: +1 312 566-8910 ...ihnp4!ddsw1!karl | "Quality solutions for work or play" TELECOM Digest Friday, May 27, 1988 1:00AM Volume 8, Issue 87 Today's Topics: Submission Toll-free zone Re: TOLLS/LOCAL CALLS? Re: Hinsdale - Thursday update Re: Explain why.... Re: Special Spkr Phone wanted... How are V&H Coordinates Computed, Who Computes Them? Re: CCITT bis Phone Company Billing Question 2 line wiring --------------------------------------------------------------- From: gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) Subject: Re: Hinsdale - Thursday update Date: 24 May 88 23:48:29 GMT Reply-To: lanai!gast@seismo.CSS.GOV (David Gast) In article <8805121812.1.137@cup.portal.com> Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.COM writes: > [discussion of the fire at IBT]. >Pagers, beepers, cellular service and similar functions are largely restored >and the restoration will be complete by the evening of May 15. It seems to me that order of the restoration of services is slightly mixed up. Certainly, emergency service should be restored first, but why should cellular service get priority over regular phone lines? IBT's primary responsibility is to provide telephone service to the people and businesses within its service area. The fire has obviously disrupted its ability to provide telephone service. Fixing competetive service first seems to indicate further abdication of IBT's responsibilities. (No one on duty, no fire fighting equipment, etc are others). This abdication will be only more severe if IBT asks the rate payers to pay for the damage. I can see the next ad for IBT's cellular service: Buy a cellular phone today. Don't be without service after the next fire. If IBT does not fix cellular service, then cellular customers could go to other companies, but regular customers do not have the option of switching phone companies. It seems unfair. These opinions may only be my own, but I hope the Illinois Public Service Commision (or whatever its name is) adopts similar feelings. David Gast gast@cs.ucla.edu {ucbvax,rutgers}!ucla-cs!gast TELECOM Digest Tuesday, May 31, 1988 6:42PM Volume 8, Issue 88 Today's Topics: New AT&T dialable countries Why cellular was restored so fast Re: Submission Various Three wire lines (was 2 line wiring) mnemonics AT&T announces new phone systems speaker phones Looking for an answering machine ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: covert%covert.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (John R. Covert) Date: 27 May 88 07:10 Subject: Why cellular was restored so fast Although the fact that cellular is a competetive service may have been somewhere in the equation, the real reason cellular service was restored so quickly is two-fold: 1. It allowed IBT to use cellular phones in emergency phone centers to provide temporary service to people whose service had not yet been restored. 2. Cellular service is really easy to restore. The cellular switch for Chicago was not in Hinsdale; all that had to be done to restore cellular service was to reconnect the land-line facilities going through the Hinsdale office which interconnected the cell sites in the area. If there actually was a cell site in Hinsdale, replacing it involved bringing in only about two or three new 19 inch racks, and hooking them up to power, trunk facilities, and the antennas on the roof -- something that can be done in just a few hours. /john ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest Wednesday, June 1, 1988 8:28PM Volume 8, Issue 89 Today's Topics: Intellidial Re: European billing and privacy Re: Hinsdale - Thursday update Re: Three wire lines no 215-976 from Delaware TT charges dropped. Re: Another reason why cellular was restored so fast Re: TELECOM Digest V8 #88 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Re: Hinsdale - Thursday update Date: 1 Jun 88 05:38:48 GMT Reply-To: syap@tut.cc.rochester.edu (James Fitzwilliam) In article <12629@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> lanai!gast@seismo.CSS.GOV (David Gast) writes: * *In article <8805121812.1.137@cup.portal.com> Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.COM writes: *> *> [discussion of the fire at IBT]. *>Pagers, beepers, cellular service and similar functions are largely restored *>and the restoration will be complete by the evening of May 15. *> * *It seems to me that order of the restoration of services is slightly *mixed up. Certainly, emergency service should be restored first, but *why should cellular service get priority over regular phone lines? One of the earlier articles on this (fascinating) topic mentioned that in cases of wide service outage the telco often sets up cellular convenience phones in the affected neighborhoods, but that in this case since the cellular service was zapped in the same fire, this was not possible. By restoring cellular service first, IBT can set up emergency phone stations pending full service restoration. Disclaimer: This answer is based on what I've read on the subject, so if I'm completely off target I welcome correction! Another service this fire has interrupted that I haven't seen mentioned is GEnie access in several neighborhoods; alternate numbers are being provided. (My source is "New on GEnie") I assume this also affects CompuServe, The Source, etc. etc. Hopefully this incident will prompt the telcos' insurance carriers to apply pressure to get adequate fire protection installed for the switching centers -- far less expensive than the losses that could occur. James domain: syap@tut.cc.rochester.edu path: rochester!ur-tut!syap "Piano is my forte" (-: GEnie: FITZWILLIAM From: gatech!ihnp4!ihlpf!jjs@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Sowa) Subject: Re: Another reason why cellular was restored so fast Date: 1 Jun 88 13:45:50 GMT Reply-To: gatech!ihlpf!jjs@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (54442-Sowa,J.J.) In article <8805271115.AA08520@decwrl.dec.com> covert@covert.DEC.COM (John R. Covert) writes: >Although the fact that cellular is a competetive service may have been >somewhere in the equation, the real reason cellular service was restored >so quickly is two-fold: > >1. It allowed IBT to use cellular phones in emergency phone centers to > provide temporary service to people whose service had not yet been > restored. > >2. Cellular service is really easy to restore. The cellular switch > for Chicago was not in Hinsdale; all that had to be done to restore > cellular service was to reconnect the land-line facilities going through > the Hinsdale office which interconnected the cell sites in the area. If > there actually was a cell site in Hinsdale, replacing it involved bringing > in only about two or three new 19 inch racks, and hooking them up to > power, trunk facilities, and the antennas on the roof -- something that > can be done in just a few hours. > >/john 1. The Hinsdale, Illinois Office (does/normally should have) provided distribution services to both the wireline and non-wireline cellular providers. Even though from the location of the MTSO the wireline office was hit harder. 2. The Ameritech Mobile Hinsdale cell site was reconfigured to provide service to the outage area. Cellular is used also by emergency services not only for the business class. Restoration service was enhanced by site personal having the ability to communicate with distribution services. 3. Evan Richards, the Illinois Bell Telephone representative handling the disaster recovery for the Hinsdale office, recently lateraled from Ameritech Mobile Communications Inc. to the IBT side of the Ameritech Corporation. 4. The level of service provided to cellular was not initially at normal high quality since it was only patched also. It is also easier to patch one or two light guide cables and get service restored faster then having to engineer, ship, install, test, and cutover new frames. Jim ------------------------------ These were the articles during May, 1988. A few minor follow up articles appeared in June, 1988. Most of the reports were written by myself from Portal Communications. As a resident in Chicago, I was affected first hand by the fire, although my personal service was not disrupted. As a point of information, on May 18, 1989 (Thursday) -- about a year later -- phones in the same area were down for four hours, from 9:30 AM until 1:40 PM due to some unidentified failure in the computer in that phone office. See Digest Volume 9 #170-171 and later issues for this report. Eleven years ago today! I hope you enjoyed this look at telco history. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Moderator ------------------------------ From: Brian Cox Subject: Re: Telrad Key BX Info Needed - REWARD OFFERED! Date: Sun, 09 May 1999 05:34:35 -0400 Organization: Atlantel Business Communications Bruce Bergman wrote: > I just recently picked up a Telrad Key BX system. Yes, I know it's > old. ;-) > I'm looking for any source of installation and programming manuals for > this system. I understand it is compatible/the-same-as a Symphony II > system, is this true? How available are spare parts (boards, > desksets, etc)? For a manual try Manuals Plus in Marietta, GA at 770-438-0707. Brian Cox Atlantel Business Communications 1-800-637-9973 Call about upgrading your StarTalk A, B or C for Y2K compliance. New hard disk installed, and your customer's database saved to floppy disk. One day turnaround guaranteed. use mindspring instead of *** to reply by email ------------------------------ From: chuck7@erols.com (Charles Conn) Subject: Which Cellular Provider Allows US and European Connectivity? Date: Sun, 09 May 1999 21:16:20 GMT I am looking for a cell phone provider that allows me to do the following: Have a cell phone which works in the US, but when I travel to Europe, it will ring there as well (when someone calls my US phone number). I assume that I would have to call the cellular provider and inform them of when I would be in Europe, and they would turn on service during this window. Is this how it works? Any help on the type of phone needed (GSM etc), or a company that provides similar international service would be appreciated. Charles Conn ------------------------------ Date: 8 May 1999 22:50:15 -0400 From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Ancient Sprint Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> saying 'Celebrating 100 years of service' ... yes, you read that >> correctly ... Sprint is claiming to be one hundred years in business. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe that is what they are trying to > say now, that the 'hundred years in service' they are touting on > the envelopes mailed to customers pertains to their old days in the > business of running a railroad. Nope. Recall that the current Sprint is the result of several mergers, and the largest predecessor company was United Tel which was and is the local phone company in a lot of places including northwestern New Jersey and Disney World. One of United's ancestor companies, the Brown Telephone Company of Abilene, Kansas, dated back to 1899, hence the century claim. (I found this in five minutes on Sprint's web site.) And after all, they didn't say "100 years of GOOD service". John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 387 6869 johnl@iecc.com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I still think that is sneaky and very deceptive. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 09 May 1999 00:17:03 -0400 From: jmv16@cornell.edu (Jeffrey M. Vinocur) Subject: Re: 90# "Feature" on Your Phone? Organization: Cornell University > So!! How come no one has sent me a copy of that memo warning employees > to never respond to messages on their pager from 212-540 numbers for > a couple years now. I used to see that one every week or so also. PAT] I've never heard this one, and while I'm sure I could find it on the web, you tell a good story ... Jeffrey M. Vinocur * jmv16@cornell.edu http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jmv16/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What happened briefly was this: In New York City, a special exchange/prefix '540' is used for premium charge services, stock market reports, horoscopes, etc. It functions a lot like '976' in many places locally and like '900' functions nationally. Quite a few years ago some joker figured out a way to make some quick money. He started a number, 540-xxxx with some sort of totally worth- less information, charging fifty cents or a dollar for it. Charges of course went on the phone bill of the caller. To stir up business a little, he left numeric messages on a few thousand pagers throughout New York City. A few people he paged unwittingly called back, not realizing they were calling a premium charge service. New York Telephone Co. billed the callers and paid this guy his money. There was a big, big stink about it. Memos began circulating all over in business places in New York from telecom managers to employees warning them against returning calls to 540 numbers which had been left on their pagers. Unlike the 90# thing which never worked at all or maybe worked once, the '540 scam' was real in New York, but instead of just telling people once, the same tired old memo kept going around and around, even making it here on the net at least a few times. Then the memo began showing up on the west coast, in Chicago, and all sorts of places where it was totally meaningless, since calls to 212-540-xxxx can only be dialed from the 212/718/914 area codes anyway! Instead of possibly doing some good by having San Franciso employers tell their employees 'do not return calls to 415-976-xxxx which are left on your pager, they were busy telling them 'do not return calls to 212-540-xxxx.' *The reason* calls to local premium charge numbers, i.e. 976 in most area codes, 540 in New York cannot be dialed from outside the service territory of the telco which owns them while the similar variety known as 900-xxx-xxxx can be called from anywhere in the USA is sort of technical and rather boring. If anyone is interested, the thread can be continued. Suffice to say, it was a case of one chicken in a hen house spotting a fox, or maybe getting eaten by the fox and the rest of the chicken coop stayed in an uproar for months and years later, thanks in large part to Usenet, where most urban legends live on in infamy years after they have become mostly meaningless. I assume when you dial 212-540-anything using MCI you still get the intercept saying 'MCI does not complete calls to 976 numbers at the present time.' My assumption is equally great that at least someone on Usenet will post something on it today implying it happened to a friend of a friend just yesterday and you had all better watch out! PAT] ------------------------------ From: craigp@world.std.com (Craig Partridge) Subject: Re: "Internet Pioneers" Date: Sun, 8 May 1999 02:23:17 GMT Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die Robert Eden writes: > How many networks made up the "Internet" in the 80's? Don't forget CSNET - linking Computer Science Departments and also research labs, some via TCP/IP and some via phonenet, to the Internet. Until about 1987, joining CSNET was the only authorized way to have access to ARPANET, other than being an ARPANET site yourself. CSNET and BITNET were about the same size -- UUCP was bigger. Craig Partridge former CSNET techie [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If anyone reads the history item I put in today regards the Illinois Bell fire in 1988 with the articles from this Digest which appeared at the time, you will see the articles are just replete with all sorts of old, ancient addressing schemes we used to use back then. Have a nice weekend everyone! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V19 #76 *****************************