A Question About Telephones

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Last week my daughter's telephone service stopped working. I tried to call her and got "this number has been disconnected". She called me a short time later from a neighbor's telephone to tell me that something was wrong with her telephone, and the telephone company (GTE) was sending a repairman. A few hours later my daughter called to tell me that the repairman checked everything, and there was nothing wrong with her telephone, but for some reason the COMPUTER no longer recognized her telephone number......she couldn't receive calls or make calls. The repairman had the telephone company assign my daughter a new telephone number and that resolved the problem. The repairman said something about this being a computer problem. Is this the type of problem that might be connected with Y2K?

-- Linda Hitchings (lindasue1@earthlink.net), December 12, 1999

Answers

This sort of thing happened to us over and over all spring, summer, and fall. One or both lines would go dead, we'd get a recording if we called them with a cell phone. One time -- at about 3 AM, it took out EVERY phone in the exchange! (I first called the school where my wife teaches, I figured I wouldn't wake anyone up at three in the morning in the summer [g] -- then I called some relatives, then random numbers -- lots of them -- and got the same recording.)

Each time, the problem "fixed itself" after anywhere from ten minutes to several hours. And each time, GTE claimed they couldn't find anything wrong.

I've seen reports in earlier threads here that others "blessed" with "service" (in every sense of the word) from GTE have had similar things happen this year.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), December 12, 1999.


Hi Linda, I have had a ton of trouble with losing my long distance service. I use MCI and they haven't been able to explain it. Everytime I call they repair it but then I lose it again. They called a few days ago and asked me if I discontues my service and I said no and the woman said we have been having this problem alot lately. I don't know if it is related to Y2K or not so I couldn't say. But I do find it strange.

-- shellie (shellie01@hotmail.com), December 13, 1999.

well, let me put my c.o hat on. If I remember correctly, this is one way it could work. There are others on this forum who can jump in here at any time.

An toll access assignment (long distance) or telephone number assignment has a physicalconnection as well as a logical address and is input to the "computer" in this case being a toll switch or a central office switch. If it did not take, the cause could be at the input point (automated program that has a DATE function and downloads multiple assignments to the switch) or in the switch it self. There are usually multiple input points which could be another failure point. Date issue, system issue people issue??

It is clearly a system problem, whether or not it is Y2K, I am not sure. Given the volume of activity to get dial tone and long distance facilities connected, the push for technology to replace manual work, and the large numbers of older workers who have voluntarily bailed (or been asked to take retirement), there could be a multitude of reasons.

Not a cheery thought moving forward. We all got used to picking up the telephone and having it always work. I suspect we also took it for granted without realizing what it took to make it work. All the time....

-- Nancy (wellsnl@hotmail.com), December 13, 1999.


Dear Madame,this problem I think is very much common nowadays. It is probably due to some kind of overusage over the phone line or most probably to some sort of software incompatibility in the central computer of your service provider.So why not thinking about a sobstitute provider in case of failure of the former ? Take for example my personal strategy with the internet,I navigate both with netscape & with explorer.

-- andrea raffaello marco besso (besso.ch@bluewin.ch), December 13, 1999.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ