BT (British Telcommunications) Network Fault Fixed - "Massive Logjam" "Cause Unknown"

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_657000/657759.stm

BT says a fault which blocked millions of calls to the Samaritans, NHS helplines and other organisations, has now been repaired.

Phone engineers worked through the night to restore the operation of 0800, 0845 and 0345 numbers, which were blocked or engaged from Friday morning.

The fault hit calls to the government's flagship NHS helpline, two motoring rescue organisations, gas companies, banks and rail inquiries.

"It is likely the problem was a malfunction in the system than to do with call volumes, but we do not know for absolute certain," a BT spokesman said.

"There is an urgent need to establish what happened. We have no indication yet as to what caused this problem, where it started or if it could happen again."

'Massive logjam'

Among the worst-affected services were the NHS Helpline, the AA, the RAC, British Gas, pipeline operator Transco, National Rail Inquiries, banks, Virgin, the RSPCA, and some internet service providers.

The problem began when two of the three BT computers handling reduced rate calls and freephone numbers crashed for an unknown reason, triggering a massive logjam.

BT said that two main gateways to the network, at Cambridge and Leeds, were affected by the problems, leaving the remaining one in Croydon swamped with calls.

BT have apologised for the disruption which meant only 50% of calls got through on Friday morning and full working service was only restored gradually through the night.

Cause unknown

The spokesman said: "BT engineers supported by our equipment engineers worked through the night trying to resolve the issue and service was gradually restored in the early hours of the morning.

"We will be monitoring the network closely during the day as call volumes increase.

"Work will also continue both to establish the root cause of Friday's incident to ensure that this problem does not recur."

The Department of Health confirmed that difficulties getting through to the NHS Direct service were down to BT.

The round-the-clock service normally receives around 8,000 calls a day.

The Samaritans confirmed that the charity's 0345 90 90 90 number was unobtainable because of the BT fault.

A spokeswoman said approximately 80% of calls made to The Samaritans, which receives 4.5m calls a year, were made to local branches not affected by the disruption.

-- Jim McAteer (jim_mcateer@hotmail.com), February 26, 2000

Answers

Thank you for the post Jim.

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 26, 2000.

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