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KATRINA HAMPERS COMMUNICATIONS FOR A SECOND DAY |
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by SiliconValley.com
Posted on Tue, Aug. 30, 2005 Phone service was disrupted along the Gulf Coast for a second day on Tuesday as power outages and flooding from Hurricane Katrina kept call-routing equipment, network cables and cellular transmitters out of commission. BellSouth Corp., the dominant local phone provider for the areas hit by Monday's hurricane, said it had confirmed that at least 73,574 customers in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi were without service. It expected the figure would rise. Most long-distance and cellular providers also reported troubles for a second day, though not all responded to requests for comment or quantified the extent of their problems. As safety officials let repair crews enter some affected areas, it was possible that disruptions might spread. Backup generators and batteries that initially kept many local phone systems and cellular sites in service were in danger of exhaustion. Sprint Nextel Corp. said a major call-routing switch in New Orleans remained nonfunctional Tuesday, disrupting wireline phone service as far as Florida. Long-distance calls could not be placed over Sprint's network into or out of the New Orleans area. Spokesman Charles Fleckenstein said repair crews could not yet get to the New Orleans switch to assess damages and begin restoring service. On the wireless side, Sprint Nextel began trying to restore cellular service in areas that safety officials cleared for repair crews. Cingular Wireless reported that cell service was available at ``significantly reduced levels'' in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La. Most of Cingular's disruptions in Mississippi were in Jackson, Biloxi, Pascagoula, Bay St. Louis, Hattiesburg, Gulfport and Brookhaven. In Alabama, there were ``minimal disruptions'' in Birmingham, Meridian, Columbus and Starkville. Cingular, jointly owned by BellSouth and SBC Communications Inc., said emergency crews were waiting for clearance to enter New Orleans and other hard-hit areas, where it said most access roads were ``blocked by debris, standing water and are unsafe.'' MCI Inc. also had crews on standby in Baton Rouge, La., waiting for clearance from authorities in New Orleans. Crews spent Tuesday refueling generators outside New Orleans, but still could not enter the city to fully assess damages and begin repairs. But spokeswoman Linda Laughlin said MCI's network was generally operational, with voice and data traffic rerouted to avoid problems in the New Orleans area. |
