nrao@digi.lonestar.org (Nagendra("Nagi")) (01/22/91)
Hi, For all those who have been writing about all Americans picking up their phones at 12:00 noon, and messing up the phone system, here's an interesting piece of information. My sister lives in Doha, Qatar which is 100 kms south of Bahrain and 400 kms east of Riyadh (see your local newspaper for the map, they should have one these days). Qatar is not directly involved in the hostilities, but has a large airforce base being used by the French. On Saturday morning, 6AM Qatar time, Friday evening here in the US, it seems a French fighter plane flew a li'l too low and the ensuing sonic boom cause everyone to try calling anyone and everyone for information. The Qatar phone system is now partially down. According to her, about 20 percent of the phone system is inoperable as of Monday morning. The normally secretive state owned TV immediately interrupted their regularly scheduled world cup soccer replay, and asked people not to get on the phone in case of an emergency. Side effect: the local TV has more reports on the war now and they can watch CNN live too. Well, picking up the phone did achieve something didn't it? I'll post the technical details when they become available. My sister works for the phone company. Cheers, Nagi