Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!ddsw1.UUCP!karl From: karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: (none) Message-ID: <8805191712.AA01972@ddsw1.UUCP> Date: 18 May 88 20:44:36 GMT Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 111 Approved: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu To: codas!comp-dcom-telecom Path: ddsw1!karl From: karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Chicago telco disaster? Summary: One view of the impact and other items of interest. Keywords: Great fire of '88?? Message-ID: <1097@ddsw1.UUCP> Date: 19 May 88 22:12:34 GMT References: <5058@ecsvax.UUCP> Reply-To: karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc., Mundelein, IL Lines: 96 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 >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! 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 AM 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!) When I moved to Chicago about three years ago, it took IBT three weeks to get two residential lines correctly installed. My phone would ring and no one would be on the other end -- and calls to my number would ring someone else's phone! IBT failed to make good on their "will be working by xxx" time at least a half-dozen times -- and when the phone finally did ring, my custom calling features were missing. Two more weeks elapsed before those worked, and even then the "*70" disable for call waiting was inoperative (this they told me they *couldnt* fix). That little episode left me with a strong feeling that IBT was incapable of performing their job with competence. This fiasco leaves no room for doubt. Ps: To all of the IBT employees who are working right now to restore to normalcy the phones in Chicagoland -- a big thanks. I have a few more choice words for IBT management, but those I will keep to myself. -- 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"