VERIZON STRUGGLES TO BRING N.Y. SWITCHING CENTER BACK TO SERVICE

“If you dipped your home computer into water and then covered it with dust and soot, you would get an idea of what we are facing,” he said. “It’s a massive job we have to do. We have to go floor by floor, cleaning equipment piece by piece.” While underground installation is thought to give switches more stability, collapse of huge Trade Center towers gave equipment “equivalent of small earthquakes,” Babbio said. Verizon said its Broad St. switching center, which provides private circuits for Wall St., including N.Y. Stock Exchange, will be back on line more quickly, although commercial power keeps going on and off. Babbio said switches were working in Pentagon and additional service had been provided in Pa. for emergency workers at site of United Airlines crash there. In answer to question, Babbio said no estimate had been made yet of what tragedy cost Verizon. Carrier appeared to have lost at least one technician in Trade Center collapse (see separate story in this issue), which Babbio related to news media with trembling voice. Employee, who was trapped on roof with 3 Genuity technicians, is “missing,” he said. “We're hoping for the best.”

AT&T meanwhile discovered what seemed like miracle -- its switch in basement of World Trade Center tower was still intact, operating on emergency power after building collapsed. Company technicians were permitted into disaster zone to turn off generator but won’t be able determine whether they can put it into service again until emergency workers are finished there, spokesman said. Switch was used not only for Trade Center but also for local business customers in surrounding areas who might return to their offices soon, spokesman said.

While Paging Network, which merged with Arch Wireless in Nov., was listed in several news accounts as having office space in South Tower of World Trade Center, Arch official said that office was closed in May. Robert Lougee, vp-investor relations and corporate communications, said “there were no Arch or former PageNet people” in building. “We had some radio links that were located in the World Trade Tower, like other wireless providers had,” Lougee said. “That impacted a small portion of our network capability in New York City,” he said. Only portion of Arch service affected was one-way paging, and field people were working Wed. to restore that, he said. Arch also provided additional messaging units and service to emergency and rescue personnel in N.Y.C. and Mass., as well as American Airlines officials, Lougee said.

Several wireless carriers were providing additional network capacity and equipment to emergency crews. Donations provided by wireless carriers, according to information compiled by CTIA, include: (1) 5,000 phones were provided by Nextel to emergency workers in N.Y. and Washington. Nextel said its direct-connect service -- 2-way radios on phones -- would allow emergency crews to remain in contact even if wireless networks were congested. Carrier said that provided interagency and cross-agency communication for FBI, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Red Cross, Congress, Secret Service, other entities. Nextel planned to have distributed 7,500 handsets as of noon today (Thurs.) -- 4,500 in N.Y. and 3,000 in Washington.

(2) 1,500 mobile phones and 6 cell on wheels mobile sites (COWS) were sent by Cingular Wireless to Washington Wed., CTIA said. Cingular said that it had experienced no blockages or network outages although carrier had 20% increase in attempted calls nationwide. (3) 1,500 phones were donated by AT&T Wireless to FBI, American Red Cross, airlines and others. AT&T Wireless added capacity by redirecting cell sites toward Manhattan and “opening up channels that had been reserved for other purposes,” CTIA said. AT&T Wireless closed all Manhattan stores and consolidated management in one location to better handle requests from city, and provided additional phones to both disaster sites. Company is looking longer term at possibility of providing office space to companies that had been housed in World Trade Center.

(3) Verizon Wireless said calling volume was 1.5 times greater than largest hourly usage in history. It also transported COWs to base of Brooklyn Bridge and directed cell sites in N.J. toward Manhattan to provide additional service. Generators were moved into area to keep services in operation. Carrier moved 2 COWS to provide additional capacity to Pentagon and other sites in Washington area and furnished handsets to N.Y. hospitals to provide service in areas where underground landlines were disrupted. Altogether, Verizon said it lost 10 cell sites in lower Manhattan in attack and established 7 new sites elsewhere in Manhattan and N.J.

Cingular Interactive, wireless data unit of Cingular Wireless, lost telephony at 6 transmitter facilities that primarily served World Trade Center, but sites themselves weren’t damaged, spokesman said. Telephony had been lost as result of power outage that occurred late Tues. Carrier said interactive wireless network didn’t run into problems because usage was lower than normal and base stations in N.J. and Brooklyn provided backup. Cingular Interactive has deployed 3 mobile, interactive cell sites to N.Y. area and 6 are in place in Washington, spokesman said. Three in N.Y. will be ready to begin operation as soon as financial markets open later this week or early next week. Cingular has donated 500 pagers to emergency crews in N.Y. and Washington and 2,000-3,000 mobile handsets, spokesman said.

Sprint reported 4 PCS cell sites remained out of service in immediate disaster area around Trade Center. Many other sites across Manhattan were temporarily without service due to commercial power outages in certain areas of Manhattan, Sprint said. “In addition, some of these sites have lost their landline connection provided to Sprint PCS by other telecom carriers whose systems and facilities were seriously damaged in the crisis.” Sprint PCS said 2 cell sites located near rubble area still were in service and redirected to help search and rescue operations. Like other carriers, Sprint PCS said it was supplying handsets to Red Cross and federal, state and local officials conducting rescue operations. “Sprint’s long distance network is operational; however, customers calling New York City may not be able to complete their calls due to damage to facilities of local telecommunications providers,” company said. Sprint PCS kept open N.Y. stores for making free calls and moved sleeping bags and food into stores so that persons who were stranded would have place to stay. Sprint also gave prepaid phone cards to Red Cross to enable survivors to make long distance calls free.

Verizon offered free calling between the 4,000 curbside payphones in Manhattan and locations elsewhere in the city’s 5 boroughs so public could make emergency calls. United Messaging offered free e-mail to World Trade Center businesses, saying it would establish or transfer e-mail accounts and domain names “as a fast and temporary way to support an orderly restoration of corporate messaging communications.” AT&T donated $1 million to Red Cross for relief efforts and gave $10 million worth of AT&T PrePaid long distance calling cards to relief workers in N.Y. and Washington.

Fixed wireless provider Teligent didn’t lose any equipment in N.Y. as result of attack. Official said it was using network to support public agencies, including 911 centers, to provide T1 level services. While Teligent didn’t suffer infrastructure damage, official said it still depended on landline carriers such as WorldCom and Verizon for its backbone for hub service into individual buildings. “To the extent the entire network is down, we are impacted,” she said. But because Teligent’s wireless infrastructure hasn’t been affected, it’s working with mobile carriers such as AT&T Wireless to provide additional capacity in N.Y. as needed. Official said that while Teligent business customers in lower Manhattan would have been affected because of impact on landline carriers, “no customers were allowed to go into work today.”

Meanwhile, PCIA cancelled its annual show, PCIA GlobalXChange, for Sept. 11-13 in L.A. On its Web site, PCIA said decision was “due to safety concerns related to the national emergency on Tuesday.” Hearing scheduled for Wed. in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, White Plains, N.Y., on objections to NextWave’s proposed plan of reorganization also was postponed, with new date not yet set. Tower operator SpectraSite said it was postponing analyst day scheduled for Sept. 20, with new date not yet set. Also cancelled was Competition Policy Institute’s 2-day conference on telecom policy issues, scheduled to begin today (Thurs.). Conference will be rescheduled and new dates will be announced next week, CPI said.

Industrial Telecommunications Assn. (ITA) postponed “until further notice” its 2001 Private Wireless Spectrum Management Conference scheduled for Washington Sept. 19-22. “In the weeks to come, I am sure that many of us will discover that we either know someone who has lost their life, or know someone else who has lost a loved one,” ITA Pres.-CEO Laura Smith said. Wiley, Rein partner Karen Kincaid, who died in plane that crashed into Pentagon (see separate story), was familiar figure to many in private wireless industry due to her work at FCC.

Heavy TV Coverage Continues

Networks continued their wall-to-wall coverage of aftermath of terrorists’ attacks in N.Y. and Washington beyond our Wed. deadline and planned to preempt prime-time programming last night. As for how long that coverage would continue, “we're taking it one day at a time,” NBC official said. “We're focused only on covering the news” without regard to lost revenue. Over-air networks -- such as UPN, WB and Spanish-language -- which don’t normally air any news, carried a network’s coverage of disaster Tues. Cable entertainment networks also were airing coverage of terrorists’ attacks -- mostly from Fox News or CNN. CBS’s Wed. (tonight) prime-time programming was to be aired by UPN, both of which are owned by Viacom. And, some cable networks, including shopping and food channels, ceased all programming Tues. because of attacks, but were back to regular shows Wed.

N.Y. stations (with exception of WCBS-TV, which has auxiliary antenna on Empire State Bldg.) late Wed. still were striving to regain on-air signal, and at least 2 hoped to return to air Wed. night. Since attacks, they had been relying on cable and satellites (about 80% of N.Y.C. residents subscribe) to deliver their signals within N.Y. designated market area (DMA). WNBC-TV and WABC-TV told us they expected delivery of transmitters later Wed. and that they would be installed during night at Alpine, N.J., to deliver low-power signal over Manhattan. Antenna manufacturer Dielectric Communications, based in Raymond, Me., said it had orders for 5 antennas from N.Y. stations, and first was shipped Tues. evening.

NAB Pres. Edward Fritts said Assn. would “serve as a clearinghouse” to help document efforts of networks and stations “to assist citizens in time of crisis.” Cost of their coverage to networks and stations -- in dollars and lost revenue -- “will be massive, just massive, just impossible to estimate,” network official told us. However, not counting their coverage costs, lost ad revenue for Big 3 TV networks will total $3-$4 million each, financial source said. Telecast of 53rd annual Emmy prime- time awards, scheduled Sun. on CBS, has been postponed for week and some planned comedy sketches already taped won’t be aired, we're told.

Comcast Pres. Brian Roberts and Liberty Media Chmn. John Malone, were meeting within blocks of World Trade Center when attacks occurred, industry and company sources said. Both were at Bank of New York on Wall St. Sources didn’t disclose nature of their discussions, but both are on bank’s board. Neither was injured. Like everyone else who was able to, Roberts and Malone left area. Roberts was to be honored Thurs. at Walter Kaitz Foundation dinner for his contributions to creating diversity in cable industry, but dinner was cancelled.

Most cable companies reported only minor problems as result of attacks on World Trade Center, aside from cancellation of industry’s “Diversity Week” in city (CD Sept 12 p4). Time Warner Cable, which has offices on 23rd St., north of scene, suffered outage “confined to the immediate area of the tragedy,” spokesman said. All employees have been accounted for, he said, although company was offering counseling for those who may have lost loved ones or were otherwise affected. TW-Cable offices are near Bellevue Hospital Center, where many injured were taken and many volunteers donated blood. TW-Cable’s Road Runner Internet service had small network operations center in World Trade Center, but no employees were there at time, spokesman said, and loss of that center didn’t affect network itself. TW-Cable, like other operators and programmers that worked together during crisis, provided feeds of its N.Y. One news to HBO and other cable entities that asked for it, he said. Company also is providing fiber capacity for Police Dept. so officers would have high-speed data during rescue and clean-up operations.