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From: rang@cs.wisc.edu (Anton Rang)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Wisconsin Bell / AT&T Making Random Connections
Message-ID: <8728@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 6 Jun 90 07:30:49 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 418, Message 1 of 10


I haven't seen this on the newsgroup, and thought readers might be
interested.

  For the last week or two, Wisconsin Bell has been having an odd
problem with their system: it's placing calls at random.  Only a few
people (all in Madison, so far as I know) have been affected so far.
They start receiving calls from other phones in the area, as well as
through AT&T's long distance network (including international calls).

  The most interesting thing about this is that these aren't just
"misdirected" calls; neither party initiates the call.  The phone just
rings at both ends.  One person in Madison was getting about eighty
calls per day through the weekend, including connections to several
other Madison numbers, and many international calls (Zaire, China, and
New Zealand, for instance).

  A Wisconsin Bell spokesman said that the company is trying to track
down the problem, with the help of AT&T.

  (Information from several newscasts and the Wisconsin State Journal.)


Anton