Re: NYC 1975 CO Fire -- Supposed it Happened Today?

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snipped-for-privacy@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.

Reply to
Anthony Bellanga
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