Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel's System Goes Down On Cable Cut

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 05:00:56 -0500

The week of March 14, 2003

Nextel's System Goes Down On Cable Cut

Cable break severs Boca's link
to the outside world

Phone lines, cell phones, credit card
machines and some internet access went
down suddenly throughout the island on
Wednesday, March 12, a delay that lasted
over three hours. Police say 911 calls were
also affected, making it impossible for
people in Boca Grande to make emergency
calls.

According to Sprint officials the problem
was caused by a severed fiber optic cable
between Cape Haze and Port Charlotte.
The underground cable was accidentally
cut by workers with Charlotte County
Utilities. It resulted in an isolation of local
phone lines, making it impossible for people
here to make or receive calls off the island.

"It cut off toll calls, anything outside of the
area," said Rosemary Beasley, a Sprint
official.

This included 911 calls, 1-800 numbers,
dial-up numbers for internet access, and
calls necessary to run credit card
transactions.

Problems first started around 1 p.m. that
afternoon and lasted until after 4 p.m.
Some say they were still having troubles up
until 6 p.m.

The problem affected everyone in Boca
Grande, making cell phone calls nearly
impossible and shutting down credit card
services throughout the island.

According to Amy Conway at Island Bike
and Beach, none of her customers' credit
cards would scan. They had to be
recorded, manually.

"I've been doing this all day," she said,
demonstrating the movement of manually
recording credit cards on an old machine
called the "knuckle cruncher."

Kathleen Turner at P.J.'s Seagrille says she
was just glad to see the lines up and
working by dinner time. During the
restaurant's lunch rush, they had to record
credit card numbers, with their owners
phone numbers, by hand. Turner was still
entering those numbers the next day.

"I was relieved that by dinner it was up and
working, considering that we had over 70
credit cards at dinner," she said with a
sigh.

Others with important business off the
island were equally as frustrated.

Angela Carnell at Englewood Bank said
people were coming in all afternoon to ask
about the ATM machine, which couldn't
dispense cash during the shut-down.

At Grande Aire off-island clients couldn't
call in, according to Valerie Long, who
works in accounts receivable. A technician
had to be sent to Englewood to call places
like McDonald's, where Grande Aire regularly
works, and inform them of the problem.
Technicians, who all use Nextel cell phones,
had no way of communicating with each
other or getting ahold of office personnel.

"We were really concerned about our big
commercial accounts," Long said. "We have
had people call in today who said, 'why
couldn't we get through to you?'"

According to Beasley, fiber optic lines are
cut "all the time," but Sprint usually gets
phones up and working quickly. This time
the lines were down for exactly three hours
and 23 minutes. Police say no major
problems requiring 911 assists occurred
during the phone outage.

http://www.bocabeacon.com/story.htbml?number=305

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