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Telecom Telephone Switch Experiences Power Outage

[Creation Date: 07-Mar-01]

Campus telephones were out of service for a short while Feb. 27 because of an unexpected power problem during routine maintenance at the Telecommunication Services main node facility.

The problem began at 10:08 a.m. and lasted for between 2 and 30 minutes, according to Telecom Technical Services Manager John Cavender. It took an additional 24 hours to fix some residual problems, and for the system to "settle down."

Basically, the telephone switch lost power, and had to be rebooted. "It's like you're on your home computer and then you lose power," Telecom Director Randy Sailer said. "The power loss causes your computer to restart."

This is the first time since the system was turned on (in July 1990) that it has rebooted "involuntarily," Sailer said. It has been rebooted intentionally after system upgrades.

Cavender estimates that 20 percent of the administrative phones were affected, and 1 to 2 percent of student phones were affected. While this seems like a relatively small number of phones, it indirectly affected calling across the entire campus. Additionally, calls to and from the "outside world" could not be made because the system lost contact with the off-campus phone system. The Telecom Mobility service was also affected by the power problem, though voice mail was not.

Some telephones were in service again after a couple of minutes, while others took a little longer. The time difference had to do with where in the system certain clusters of telephones were being powered.

The student phones, for example, are on a different switch than the administrative phones. Since only a small number of student phones were affected by the power interruption, it took a lot less time for the system to restore dial tone.

The nature of this particular fault prevented system backup batteries and standby generators from coming on line. They are normally there to protect the system from such disturbances.

If you are having any problems with your phone, either related to the power interruption or not, please report them to the Telecom Customer Service office at 5-2171.