Verizon Teams Working to Restore Service in Southern Manhattan

Verizon Teams Working to Restore
Service in Southern Manhattan

Wireless Network Capacity Bolstered in New York City, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania

NEW YORK - September 12, 2001 - Verizon employees today began work to restore phone service to a major switching center that was damaged as a result of yesterday's attacks on the World Trade Center.

Public safety officials allowed the company to re-enter the office, which sustained structural and water damage. The center, located at 140 West Street, is adjacent to the devastated area.

"We are still assessing the damage and will work around the clock to restore full service to affected customers as quickly as possible," said Larry Babbio, Verizon vice chairman and president. Babbio provided an update on the health of Verizon's networks at a 1 p.m. news conference today.

Babbio stressed that while some services to southern Manhattan are impacted by the terrorist attacks, the rest of Verizon's networks on the East Coast and nationwide continue to operate normally. In the New York City and Washington, D.C. areas, calls today continued to run at about 340 million calls, nearly double the normal volume, he said.

"Our network is designed to provide back-up systems, and that redundant capability kept service up for many customers who might otherwise have been out of service," said Babbio. "A good example is New York City's 9-1-1, which is completely redundant and has been working throughout this tragedy."
Babbio said the company does not have an estimate on how long it will take to bring the center fully back online. "The building has three or four major holes -- that means water and dirt have gotten in to sensitive computer gear." He said Verizon has provided hundreds of additional lines for Bellevue and St. Vincent's Hospitals, the New York Police Department and other emergency centers.

Babbio said the company has accounted for the vast majority of its 488 employees assigned to the World Trade Center and 40 employees at the Pentagon.

The Verizon wireless network is operating well nationwide. In southern Manhattan, 10 Verizon Wireless cell sites remain out of service, but neighboring cells are currently handling demand. Company engineers are setting up temporary cell sites in Manhattan and across the Hudson River in New Jersey, to provide much-needed capacity for emergency teams. Portable cell sites are also being installed at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania at the site of the fourth plane crash.

During the peak of Tuesday's emergency, Verizon Wireless experienced 50 percent to 100 percent more traffic than normal, nationwide, on its wireless network. Currently, volume levels have returned to normal, even in southern Manhattan.

Verizon Wireless has made 5,000 phones available to emergency response authorities and special teams of employees are programming the phones and delivering them to officials involved in the rescue and criminal investigations.

Verizon bolstered its usual force of more than 700 operators serving the Northeast by 50 percent. Over 1,000 operators handled more than four times the normal number of Directory Assistance calls early Wednesday, and 11/2 times the normal calls to "0" services like collect and credit card services. Calls to regular operators were being answered in 2 seconds or less, to assure that trapped victims dialing "0" could reach help quickly.

Verizon took a number of steps to assist customers affected by the crisis. The company yesterday began offering free local calling from all of its 4,000 curbside payphones in Manhattan. The company's GTE Airfone unit also will remove charges for all calls made from aircraft on its phones from 9 a.m. to noon yesterday.