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Chapter 13
Wednesday, November 25
HACKERS HAMPER HOLIDAY HELLO'S
By Scott Mason
As most of my readers know by now, I have an inherent suspicion of lame excuses for bureaucratic bungling. If any of you were unable to make a long distance phone call yesterday, you weren't alone.
AT&T, the long distance carrier that provides the best telephone service in the world, handles in excess of 100,000,000 calls daily. Yesterday, less than 25% got through. Why? There are two possible answers: AT&T's official response and another, equally plausible and certainly more sinister reason that many experts claim to be the real culprit.
According to an AT&T spokesperson from its Basking Ridge, New Jersey office, "In my 20 years with AT&T, I have not seen a crisis so dramatic that it nearly shut down operations nation- wide." According to insiders, AT&T came close to declaring a national emergency and asking for Federal assistance.
Airlines and hotel reservation services reported that phone traffic was down between 65-90%! Telemarketing organizations said that sales were off by over 80%.
Perhaps an understanding of what goes on behind the scenes of a phone call is in order.
When you pick up your phone, you hear a dial tone that is provid- ed by the Local Exchange Company, or as more commonly called, a Baby Bell. The LEC handles all local calls within certain dial- ing ranges. A long distance call is switched by the LEC to the 4ESS, a miracle of modern communications. There are 114 Number 4 and 5 Electronic Switching Systems used in all major AT&T switch- ing offices across the country. (A few rural areas still use relays and mechanical switches over 40 years old. When it rains, the relays get sticky and so does the call.)