Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel Network Performance Report- Grayson County, TX

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 03:33:19 -0400

Nextel Network Performance Report-
Date Reported: 9/18/2003
Location: Grayson County, TX
Reported By: Grayson County Sheriff's Office / Herald Democrat Newsroom
Problem: Fiber Optic Cable Cut

L O C A L • N E W S
Herald Democrat Newsroom
Phone problems cause headaches
Serving Sherman, Denison, Bonham,
the Red River Valley, Texas

BY KIMBERLY SVATEK
AND MARY JANE FARMER
HERALD DEMOCRAT

In what some might call a blessing to the ears, area businesses and emergency
service providers say an evening
without phones caused them numerous headaches.

Denison and Pottsboro businesses estimate losing thousands of dollars after
reports came in that local, long-distance, Internet and cell phone services were
down from around noon until 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Emergency service dispatchers in some areas used special seven-digit phone numbers
for service. None reported
extreme problems that couldn't be handled through "Plan B," which allows for such
emergencies.

At the Grayson County Sheriff's Office, where dispatchers work with deputies and
several smaller city agencies
and take many of the 911 calls in the county, Lt. David Hawley said, "Our
communications operators are to be
commended. Right after the phone blackout, they were in immediate touch with
Verizon."

Hawley said that within 20 minutes, two technicians were in dispatch, working with
the problem. "That is where
we learned it was because of the (cut) cable. Our 911 phones were only down for a
few minutes." Hawley went
on to explain that GCSO is on Verizon's system and only SBC telephone customers
were directly involved with
the blackout.

Amanda Ray with Southwestern Bell Corporation Media Relations said the culprit of
the downed services was a
contractor error which cut a fiber optic cable north of Anna. Ray said that late
Tuesday afternoon, SBC sent
crews to the cut line five miles north of Anna. She said services were restored by
8:30 p.m., but many customers
reported having troubles as late as 10 p.m.

Automobile dealerships, which depend heavily on phone services to run credit
reports and finalize car sales, said
they couldn't give an exact estimate on the loss of revenue, but said it could be
as high as $30,000.
"We were totally in the dark," said Jack Smart, with Lawrence Marshall's
dealership. He said they closed early
because, without phones, sales couldn't be made.

A sales manager at Texoma Ford said he depends heavily on phones to deal with
other car dealerships. He said
several of the business' customers live outside the Denison area and the loss of
service meant the company lost
several deals.

At Team Bonner, customers had to return to the showroom floor Wednesday to
finalize deals because fax machines were down on Tuesday.

One Pottsboro business, the Crazy Crow Trading Post, said the phone situation was
more of an inconvenience
than a loss of income. Brenda Murray, customer service manager at the Post, said
her company depends heavily
on the phones to take orders, but she said orders are only taken until 5:30 p.m.
and that the calls usually die down
about 4 p.m.

In what is often the busiest time for pizza delivery, dinner time, Richard
Campbell with Papa John's in Denison
said his store saw a slight decrease in requests for delivery.

"It was kind of weird," he said. "We didn't have nearly as many calls, but we
still had a few calling in and others
coming to the store to tell us they had tried calling all day, but got a busy
signal."

"Our (GCSO) dispatchers immediately contacted Denison by backup communications and
kept in contact with
police, fire, and EMS through radio transmissions," Hawley said.

GCSO dispatchers also contacted every volunteer fire department and EMS service by
radio or relay
communications to advise them to have someone listening to the police radios in
case of an emergency so they
could respond.

Whitesboro and Van Alstyne police said their dispatchers were not affected by the
problem. But, according to
Van Alstyne Sgt. Tim Barnes, the department-issued Nextel phones were silenced, as
were other people's cell
phones. But, Barnes said, the problem didn't affect ambulance or police service.
"We just couldn't dial any long
distance or cell phone numbers," which are often necessary in routine police work.

Chief Paul Woody, at Whitesboro, said emergency service providers went on calls as
usual.
In Denison, Police Lt. Mike Eppler said the department's phone lines were tied up
more than usual by people
calling in to see what the problem was. "Just curious what was going on," he said,
explaining that "most of those
calls came early on."

Everything was up and running by 8:30 p.m., in plenty of time for police to go out
in force and recover a
walk-away 3-year-old from a home in the 300 block of West Morton. A resident
spotted him five blocks away
and she called police, saying she had the child safely in her care. Police
retrieved the child and returned him to his
frantic mother.

"We could make calls within the city, but outside calls were a problem," Eppler
said.

During the several hours of phone problems, Denison Fire Department sent out
ambulances to two motor vehicle
wrecks, to one scene where a woman had jumped from a moving vehicle east of
Denison, and made four more
ambulance runs. They also sent fire trucks to a home that was believed to be on
fire, but found to be only a
smoke scare.

Fire Dept. Capt. Don Coley said, "We had no measurable time delay on any calls,"
Denison 911 calls are
monitored through fire department dispatchers, who take the initial information
and forward it to fire or police.
"We got on the air for everybody to go to the other emergency numbers. There were
some minor (in-house)
complications because we are used to our routine technology, but nothing was
insurmountable."
Department of Public Safety Supervisor of Police Communications Ricky Nichols said
their phone service was
not affected, but telecommunications were to some extent, but said that,
basically, everything went pretty smoothly.
"We have learned some things from this blackout and are looking into ways to make
things better in the event this
occurs again," Hawley said.

Ray couldn't release a dollar amount on the cost of repairing the damage, but,
when asked how much she thought
local companies lost, she said, "We see this as an issue of customer service.
Customers want service and it was
our intent to get it restored as soon as possible." Ray did say that repairing the
fiber optic line was much quicker
because it was not an older copper line.

So far, from January through June of 2003, 17,000 damage claims have been filed
due to someone cutting lines.
That number is on track with 2002 figures, in which 26,000 lines were cut because
they were not located before
digs. Ray said the only way to avoid mass outages like this week's is for
contractors to contact DIG-TEST and locate
the lines.

http://66.220.130.210/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=108034?news

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