Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Bay Area Earthquake Phone Service Message-ID: Date: 18 Oct 89 16:02:48 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: ecl@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (Evelyn C. Leeper) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 28 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 459, message 2 of 10 In article dennisb@pdx.mentor.com (Dennis Brophy) writes: > How does the phone service work during an earthquake? > I had to send a fax to San Jose this evening, and AT&T would not > complete the call, but MCI was able to reach my destination in San > Jose with out a problem. Why would AT&T stop service while MCI > permits inbound calls to the Bay Area? We got through via AT&T to our in-laws in Mountain View at 5:40 PM PDT last night. I believe at some point AT&T started blocking inbound calls in order to save the trunks for outbound calls, which seems reasonable. Whether this blocking was total or whether some number of calls were let through isn't clear. I find it a bit of a miracle that my in-laws who have no power, no gas, and probably no water service, have a phone that worked throughout all this--my father-in-law called home right after the quake to say he was okay and the phones worked fine. And it's not MCI who installed all those working lines and phones either. I admit to a certain bias, but I am proud of how well AT&T's installations have performed through the crisis. Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 201-957-2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself what am I? And if not now, when? --Hillel