Region's telephone service slowly improving
Damages repaired, systems adjusted
By Keith Darcé
New Orleans Times-Picayune Business writer
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_15.html
Those irritating busy signals and congested network messages on your
telephone soon may be a thing of the past.
After more than two weeks of sporadic service because of Hurricane Katrina,
telephone lines in southeastern Louisiana are slowly returning to normal as
phone companies not only repair storm-damaged networks but adjust their
systems to contend with population shifts.
Meanwhile, the Louisiana Public Service Commission on Wednesday asked
wireless phone companies in the state to give customers free service for
September and October because wireless phones have become the only means of
communication for many evacuees. Whether they will remains an open question.
Despite the overall improvement in phone service, about 150,000 BellSouth
Corp. phone lines remained dead Wednesday, mostly in the parishes of
Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard, said Merlin Villar, a
spokesman for the region's biggest local phone service provider. Much of
those parishes remain evacuated.
Outside of the hardest-hit area, most outgoing local and long distance
calls Wednesday were connected on the first try, an improvement from a
couple of days earlier. But many people calling into Baton Rouge and other
southeastern Louisiana cities still had to dial several times to complete
their calls.
BellSouth workers have repaired more than 100 breaks in the company's
buried fiber-optic cable network that serves as the backbone of the
region's local phone system. AT&T technicians had installed a new
fiber-optic line between the Mississippi state line and Bay St. Louis,
Miss., to bypass a pair of flooded computer switches in eastern New Orleans
that are part of the long-distance company's high-capacity network in the
region.
Wireless phone companies also have repaired antennas, also known as cell
sites, in areas that weren't flooded.
Verizon Wireless has restored cell sites in Armstrong Park on the edge of
the French Quarter, on the roof of Royal Sonesta Hotel in the French
Quarter and on top of a residence hall at the Uptown campus of Tulane
University, Verizon spokesman Patrick Kimball said.
"There has been a lot of progress in bringing back up cell sites," he said.
Cingular's wireless network in southeastern Louisiana was 85 percent
restored by Wednesday afternoon, Cingular spokeswoman Dawn Benton said.
Even with the progress, dialing into the region from outside Louisiana
remained a problem for many, particularly during peak calling hours. To
prevent the high calling volumes from jamming networks, some long-distance
companies were limiting incoming calls so outgoing calls from storm victims
and relief workers could be completed.
Other companies, such as Sprint, were rerouting many long-distance calls
through other Southern cities because regional switches in New Orleans were
submerged or otherwise inoperable. The rerouting caused problems for some
Sprint customers along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida, Sprint
spokeswoman Kristen Wallace said.
Call volume on Sprint's network in southeastern Louisiana has doubled since
the storm, she said.
Wireless service providers encouraged customers to send more text messages
because they use up smaller amounts of network capacities and are easier to
complete.
The request for free cell service for customers was made by the public
service commissioners, who do not regulate wireless phone networks. They
sent their request to the Federal Communications Commission, which has
jurisdiction over the companies.
Many wireless service providers already have offered breaks on some
services, phones and accessories.
For example, Sprint customers from areas affected by the hurricane will not
be charged for long-distance calls, roaming on outside networks, sending
text messages or exceeding the number of calling minutes on their service plan.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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