telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (05/20/89)
Service to over 40,000 Illinois Bell subscribers in the northwest suburbs of Chicago was disrupted for about four hours Thursday because of problems with the computer in the switching center. Phones were either dead or inoperative for incoming and outgoing calls between 9:30 a.m. and 1:40 p.m. because of a software glitch at the central office in Hoffman Estates, IL. Most of the disruption occurred in Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Hanover Park, and Streamwood, IL. The exact nature of the problem was not discussed by the Bell spokesman who reported that the outage had been corrected. Apparently the backup system which is supposed to kick in also failed. Patrick Townson
klopfens@cis.ohio-state.edu (Bruce Klopfenstein) (05/21/89)
>From article <telecom-v09i0171m01@vector.dallas.tx.us>, by telecom@eecs.nwu. edu (TELECOM Moderator): > Service to over 40,000 Illinois Bell subscribers in the northwest suburbs > of Chicago was disrupted for about four hours Thursday because of problems > with the computer in the switching center. > [goes on to note other details including the failure of the backup syqtem] Are the implications of this outage as serious as they appear to be on the surface? To a non-telephony insider, this appears to be about as big a crisis as one could imagine. Am I cynical in thinking that before this happened, Illinois Bell would have said that this incident was impossible? (Shades of Exxon?) -- Dr. Bruce C. Klopfenstein | klopfens@andy.bgsu.edu Radio-TV-Film Department | klopfenstein@bgsuopie.bitnet Bowling Green $tate University | klopfens@bgsuvax.UUCP Bowling Green, OH 43403 | (419) 372-2138; 352-4818 [Moderator's Note: While the numbers seem large, forty thousand subscribers out of four million plus in the northern Illinois area is one percent or less of the total. I'll grant you, it certainly shows how vulnerable we are to computer failures. Several months ago, we had a similar outage in the CO next to me (Chicago-Irving) which lasted about five minutes. And the latest joke about Exxon is a twist on the old folk song: "What do you do with a drunken sailor? Put him in charge of an Exxon tanker!" See you tomorrow, IBT willing! PT]