[comp.dcom.telecom] 1991 AT&T Outage

Bruce Klopfenstein <klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu> (06/13/91)

> Jan. 4., 1991.  An AT&T construction crew in New Jersey mistakenly
> cracks a single fiber-optic cable.  The cable is the width of a
> person's thumb.  The crack halts 60 percent of AT&T's long-distance
> calls to New York City. Aviation control centers are paralyzed,
> causing gridlock in the skies throughout the Northeast.

I heard at a conference that this is not true.  The actual reason was
a bug in a software upgrade to a telco switch that shut down other
switches.  Was this ever covered on this list?

Thanks.


[Moderator's Note: We had mention of it here, but the cable failure
was the reason given. Your allegation is the first time I recall
hearing any other reason for the outage earlier this year.  PAT]