********************************************************************
PAT - DO NOT display my email address anywhere in this post! Thanks.
********************************************************************
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com asked about the 1975 New York City Central
Office Fire, and what would happen if something like this happened
today.
Many CLECs could also be affected if a fire occured in a large city or
even mid sized town. CLECs frequently co-locate at Bell/ILEC central
offices. Some CLECs are simply re-selling Bell/ILEC dialtone and would
be immediately affected if the central office switching equipment were
destroyed or severely damaged. Those CLECs which have their own
switching facilities elsewhere might be affected to some degree,
depending on whether or not those CLECs have their own distribution
plant (such as the Cable TV companies), or whether they use the ILEC's
copper/fiber.
If the CLEC is also a Cable TV company, chances are that they aren't
using Bell copper at all, and as long as those customers in the area
aren't in the immediate vicinity of the fire, those Cable TV CLEC
customers wouldn't be affected. However, calls from those Cable TV
CLEC customers to those ILEC landline customers served from the burned
out central office couldn't be completed, obviously.
If the CLEC has their own switch elsewhere, but are using the ILEC's
copper distribution plant, it depends on whether or not the fire
burned or damaged the main distribution frame. Such CLEC customers are
still going to be "wired" to that building, but then at the MDF are
grouped on direct trunks to get dialtone from where ever the CLEC's
central office switching actually is located.
A lot of people today also have cellular phones. In some cases, those
residental customers don't even have landline phone service
anymore. It's also quite possible that an ILEC might offer temporary
service to their affected landline customers with cellular phone
service provided by that ILEC's wireless subsidiary or wireless
partner company. I seem to remember hearing that BellSouth has offered
Cingular phone service to many returning to affected parts of Katrina-
damaged New Orleans who still had to wait for their landline BellSouth
service to be restored. Residential customers simply got Cingular
cellphones with Cingular assigned numbers. However, I think that
business customers were able to temporarily port their BellSouth
landline numbers to their new (temporary?) Cingular phones.
If there were a severe fire, flood, etc. to an ILEC's central office
switch or building these days, I would think that the ILEC might also
offer temporary cellular service to affected customers in those cases
as well. And of course, there are always going to be those customers
who don't even have (ILEC) landline phone service anymore, and have
strictly cellular service.
Anthony Bellanga (anthonybellanga@notchur.biz)