AT&T network recovery preparations

Sat Sep 22 02:37:59 UTC 2001

On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, David Lesher wrote:
> http://www.att.com/ndr/ndr_e_d.html
>
> Quote:
> 	(AT&T has never lost an entire central office),
>
> Oh?
>
> I'm thinking of that panel office fire in NYC, circa 1970.

I've spoke with one of the people involved in the recovery
of that office.  The AT&T switch continued to operate through
the fire and several weeks afterwards.  They have a tape of
a newscast where Mayor Koch is praising the efforts of New
York Telephone and the people of New York.

A better example is Hinsdale Illinois.  As far as I know, I
haven't met anyone personally involved with that one.  It
disrupted a lot of service, I don't think the fire destroyed
the entire building.

The most recent example is Rochelle Park, NJ; but I believe
that building was officially owned by Bell Atlantic.  There the
damage was limited to power equipment.

With divesture, the pre-divesture disasters as well as the Bell
logo went on to the books of the LECs.  AT&T's NDR has only been
around  since 1991. So the statement is technically correct, although
it omits some details.