Date: Fri 15-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

phone-SNET-Crouch

Full Text:

Phone Access Problems Spark Local Concerns

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

Last week, dispatcher Jim Crouch had trouble paging a medic who was needed for

an extrication at a motor vehicle accident on South Main Street. Two days

later, he was unable to gain quick telephone access to the state police, as

well as both the Newtown police and fire EMS dispatch centers. It was then

that he realized the extent and critical nature of the telephone problem he

was experiencing during each snow storm.

"I didn't put two and two together until Friday. I only realized that during

snowstorms I couldn't get through to the medics," said Mr Crouch, which wasn't

crucial because both medics and state police can be reached by radio. He had

suspected there was an overload problem with the pager company and that the

municipal office telephone system was "not properly structured." When someone

in Botsford called the dispatcher to report difficulty in dialing out, Mr

Crouch realized the problem went beyond the municipal telephone system so he

began to investigate.

The dispatcher called a few residents and businesses in town to see if they

were experiencing the same problem - often when a Danbury-area number was

dialed a "fast busy signal" indicated the call was not being processed. He

found his wife was having difficulty calling out, as was the staff at The Bee

and the News-Times Newtown office. The inability to get through seemed to be

townwide.

"This is a critical situation because we are unable to reach Pelletier Alarm

Services - the biggest alarm company in Newtown," said the dispatcher. "[These

alarms] have auto-dialers that will dial a Danbury-area number when activated.

So there are 216 security, fire, and medical alarms that are not guaranteed to

work everytime we have a storm."

On that same Friday, Pelletier phoned the dispatch center because they could

not receive a signal from the Hook & Ladder station during an alarm test.

"It's just that one specific time it didn't happen correctly," said Jim Ward,

president of Pelletier Alarm Systems, which is based in Danbury. The company

runs daily tests on most of the public buildings it services in Newtown, he

said. When the company didn't get the expected signal from Hook & Ladder's

test on March 8, it called the dispatch center, according to Mr Ward.

"[Our medical, burglar, and fire] alarm systems will [dial] twenty times in

sequence to get through," said Mr Ward. "But our burglar and fire alarm will

also be audible at a location to make people aware of a situation."

Mr Crouch wondered if other 911 centers in the region were having difficulty

dialing out on snow days so he called each one. The Ridgefield center was the

only location to have similar telephone problems.

SNET's Berkshire Region Engineering Manager Chet Raczka said Newtown and

Ridgefield are scheduled to be upgraded from electronic switching system to a

state of the art, digital switching system. "That will be in July, I think,"

said Mr Raczka. "That means more capacity...It will also allow for growth in

Newtown central offices, and allows for many new services."

Among the services will be integrated switch digital network (ISDN), and Smart

Link features such as caller ID, call blocking, missed-call dialing, call

trace, and anonymous call rejection."

But the upgrade is not happening because of problems in dialing out, according

to the manager. "There are times when we have snow storms or bad weather and

the kids are home, and everyone is on the line. Admittedly, there are some

delays," he said. "We're working to augment trunks and that problem should

dissipate."

"We are aware of the problems in Newtown and we are just as concerned as the

town of Newtown," said Beverly Levy, SNET spokesperson. "We are very concerned

that the town of Newtown has problems on particularly heavy calling days."

"It's a two-part issue. The central office that serves Newtown is scheduled to

be modified in early summer but we're trying to accelerate that. The equipment

that will serve the town hall and emergency services will have a larger

capacity and won't have the issue of delayed dial tone... We are correcting or

adjusting the software that services town hall so they will be able to get a

dial tone."

But this won't help with a problem Ms Levy describes as "nationwide." That is,

encountering busy circuits when "sudden peak demands" - like midnight on New

Year's Eve - have occurred on three or four snowy days due to a surge in phone

calls and telecommuting, she said. "The solution for that is we're building a

fiber optic network - the capacity will be almost infinite... [The service

will `unfold'] but take at least a decade to complete...

"We're not happy with either situation," said the spokesperson. "The town hall

problem we're addressing immediately, today, as we speak... The software has

been working fine except for these unusual snow days."

Residential Lines Affected

Jeffrey Tomascak's telephone trouble has been getting worse. "It's a regular

thing, especially between 7 and 9 [on week nights] - when I try to dial into

any Danbury number, the second I finish dialing I get this very fast beep, or

it clicks and goes to a dial tone again," he said. "And in the phone companies

terminology it's a `fast busy' which means all circuits are busy."

It's gotten to the point where Mr Tomascak has to make 12 or 13 attempts to

get through to an on-line computer service, he said. But it also happens when

he tries to make a regular call during those hours.

"One [telephone] person told me there's such heavy growth in the area, they

just can't keep up with it," said Mr Tomascak. "Either somebody's not doing

his job, or whoever planned [the system] didn't plan properly... I can

understand [once in awhile] during bad weather, but there is no excuse for

every night...And this is 1996 - storms shouldn't enter into anything."

The SNET representatives have been "very nice" but the situation hasn't

changed, said Mr Tomascak. "Seven to nine is evidently a busy time at home...

a peak time. But do I have to call after midnight? Are we going to have to go

back to party lines?"

Beyond the inconvenience, Mr Tomascak is concerned that he will not be able to

call for help in an emergency situation. "I kept getting a busy signal when I

was trying to call 611 (the telephone repair line)," he said. "Is this going

to happen when I call 911?"

The town hall dispatchers now have similar concerns.

"Obviously we can't let SNET wait until summer [to address this problem] -

something has to be done," said Mr Crouch. "There is a crucial element here.

With the next storm that passes by, an elderly person at Nunnawauk Meadows may

hit his medical alarm and we might not show up."