Manhattan, NY – An equipment failure in Verizon Communications Inc.’s network knocked out its own landlines and AT&T Inc.’s wireless service in a limited part of Manhattan on Monday.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
A “digital cross connect,” or a box that directs network traffic, was knocked out due to the severe thunderstorms over the past few days, according to a Verizon spokeswoman. The company’s technicians are working on repairing the equipment, but the spokeswoman couldn’t say when service would be back up.
The problems only affected a small part of the Manhattan. The affected areas range as high as the 40s and as low as the 20s, between 5th Avenue and the eastside of the borough, according to a Verizon spokeswoman. AT&T’s affected area appears even more limited.
The outage is a misstep for a company that prides itself on network quality.
For AT&T, it’s another minor wrinkle for a company attempting to repair its reputation for network quality, even if it isn’t to blame. The company has taken the lion’s share of heat for the coverage issues of the Apple Inc. iPhone, particularly in the major media markets of New York and San Francisco.
But the recent antenna issue of the latest iPhone 4 have thrown some of the criticism back to Apple.
AT&T said last week it was on track to complete the upgrade of its network in New York, and has seen recent improvement, with San Francisco about 90 days behind.
The issue is the second one to crop up for AT&T this month. In early July, the uplink portion of parts of the higher speed version of its 3G network called HSUPA suffered from a slowdown because of a software defect found in equipment supplied by Alcatel-Lucent.
An AT&T spokesman said Monday the company has begun deploying a software update that would fix the problem and restore the higher uplink speed. The fix would be deployed over the next two to three weeks.
i only use cellphones…no more verizon…no more “on hold” …no more wait for th repairman..no more excessive fees…no more upiteeness (but for me)…i am a cellphone user and spend mine money where i want.
It all shows that at the end of the day we are all tied to verizon. They are so big that not onlyare Verizon customers affected but also other carriers that use their lines. Behind the scenes the compnies trade capacity back and forth just like long distance carriers trade blocks of minutes.
By the way, I use VOIP and rate it almost as good as land lines, cheaper but not perfect yet.
Thanks No. 2 for the info. Could you please elaborate on how I can go about getting voip (for business lines, too?) and what is the diff bet ooma and voip. Also what is google voice?
to numbers 1 and 2 – you explain why you only use cellphones and not verizon landlines…
Did you read the article (or experience yesterday) when it explained that it knocked out AT&T WIRELESS service?
So I’m not understanding the relevance of your cellphone comments as a “solution to avoid such problems” if that WAS the problem.
Secondly – regarding the Voip comments – I do agree, I love voip products and their cost and ease of use.
But again – how is this helpful for the people affected here?
When Verizon business landlines go down in manhattan, you also lose all internet service (doesn’t matter who your ISP is – your physical lines under your feet in manhattan are owned and operated by Verizon and when they go down, all internet lines go down too – I’ve been on the receiving end of this enough times to know exactly how this works).
If you have a break in the internet access – your voip lines will all go silent.
No internet – no phone.
No electricity (not relevant usually in manhattan) – no phone either.
Again – I LOVE voip – it’s simply irrelevant to mention it here as the “solution” when it has nothing to do with the problem (and wouldn’t have helped).
I love cable it’s only $29 and you get all the features, internet is also only $29 cheaper than voip and no hidden charges.