Networks at Risk from Localized Network Outages
ByFor years ATL Communications has been involved in quick recovery of toll-free traffic from localized network outages. Recently I was in a meeting talking about the issues around local-number porting in emergencies. I was surprised to see how many outages of this type there really are and how many lines are affected. The list below includes outages that affected local and long distance, including toll free.
All of us hear about the 250,000 lines out for more than 40 days after 9/11 or the 1.4 million after Hurricane Katrina. In disasters, such as those, we anticipate a large volume of lines will be affected and for a substantial period of time. But, there are a number of lesser occurrences happening every day. The chart below shows the number of occurrences and the time to repair for just two months of this year. This was compiled from trouble reports from several companies.
| Date | Location | # of Lines Down | Time to Repair |
| 7/6 | Bremerton, WA | 40,000 | 6 Hours |
| 7/3 | Pocono, PA | Not Published | 17 Hours |
| 7/3 | Oak Park, ND | 3,000 | 1-4 Days |
| 7/2 | North Star, MN | 192 | 21 Hours |
| 7/1 | Burr Ridge, IL | Not published | 34 Hours |
| 6/29 | Palm Springs, CA | 1,200 | 8 Hours |
| 6/27 | Rapid City, SD | “thousands” | 4 Hours |
| 6/22 | Lincoln, NE | 23,000 | 11 Hours |
| 6/21 | SE Nebraska | Not published | 2.5 Hours |
| 6/17 | Carlisle, SC | 455 | 24 Hours |
There are cost-effective ways to protect your toll-free traffic from the affects of these localized outages. We at ATL Communications can help devise a plan that works for you. Our next challenge is to develop a means of protecting the networks against outages of local traffic.
