World Trade Center attack overwhelms telco networks in Eastern Canada

The destruction from the terrorist attack in the United States caused telecom networks in this country to overload, forcing some carriers to impose restrictions on access and to advise customers to limit calls south of the border. Most affected was Aliant Telecom Inc, which experienced a dramatic increase in network traffic on all of its eastern Canada systems. Some of the increase was the result of several dozens of airplanes and their hundreds of passengers being redirected to the Canadian east coast when American airports were shut down. "But even before they arrived, the Internet traffic and voice traffic were going steadily up," Aliant spokesperson Brenda Reid explained. "I guess the people in Atlantic Canada were trying to reach relatives or people that they knew in the States. The busiest area codes were the New York and the Washington ones." Bell Canada reported similar jumps in calls to the two cities most affected. Norm Berberich in the telco's media relations department says the extra traffic wasn't unmanageable. "We saw about a 40 per cent increase overall throughout the business day ," he notes. "That would be similar to the increase we see in one of our highest traffic days." Aliant's network load increased much more. Reid compares it to Mother's Day, traditionally one of the highest volume calling days in the calendar. "On Mother's Day about 1.1 million calls are processed through Halifax. On Tuesday it was 2.3 ," she reports. Aliant issued a public service announcement on the day of the attack, imploring customers not to use the system unless absolutely necessary. The warning was applied to the LD, wireless and Internet networks. Residents responded well to the message. "People actually heard that and that helped a lot, especially on the cellular network," Reid says. "All the emergency organizations were using the cellular network. By Thursday, it had gone back to normal to a point where it was only the cell network that we were asking people to be conscious about. The emergency organizations and the stranded passengers were still using the cell network quite a bit." The final advisory was lifted by the end of the week. While the two ILECs in the eastern half of the country were most affected, others reported difficulties as well. Manitoba Telecom also asked customers to cut back on unnecessary calls to the U.S. and placed restrictions on access to eight area codes. The limits, which were lifted after one day, were on the New York City NPAs 212, 718 and 917; the New Jersey codes 201, 609, 908 and 973; and the 202 designation of the District of Columbia. The annoyances suffered by Canadian customers pale in comparison with the problems American telcos faced. Following the disaster, most of the major telecom players in the U.S. struggled to maintain minimum standards of service. Verizon, which is the primary service provider in the Manhattan area, lost network facilities and 10 wireless transmitters. It added extra wirelines to hospitals, police stations and other emergency centres. Pay phones in New York were converted to free service in response to the chaos. The company added mobile towers in Manhattan and is rerouting calls on the wireless network. Sprint lost four wireless connection sites in Manhattan and other sites in the New York area were incapacitated due to power failures. Statements issued by both telcos, as well as AT&T and Cingular Wireless, reported huge increases in traffic flow. Within three hours of the attack at the World Trade Center, volume was up 1000 per cent. AT&T and Verizon reported traffic in New York and Washington doubled in the aftermath of the disaster.

World Trade Center attack overwhelms telco networks in Eastern Canada

News | 09/24/2001 4:00 am EDT

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