USAToday

05/03/2001 - Updated 11:25 PM ET
Soaring Net use strands callers with busy signal

By Andrew Backover, USA TODAY

As Internet use grows, more Americans see an unwanted consequence: local phone lines so clogged that they can't make phone calls or jump online.

Regulators say the problem is likely to spread as more people buy second phone lines and spend more time online.

Phone companies are adding capacity, but hot spots of poor service continue to pop up.

"It's probably going to get worse next year," says Heather Murphy, spokeswoman for the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities. "We're becoming a more Net-enabled community."

The Federal Communications Commission doesn't break out such complaints separately, but anecdotes abound:

This week, Florida regulators said rising Internet use was the reason callers couldn't make calls between Tallahassee and Bristol. Phone firm GTCom is adding capacity, officials say.

This winter, Arizona residents in a half-dozen trailer parks complained sporadically to regulators that they couldn't make calls for several hours during late afternoons and evenings. Officials speculate the problem occurred because vacationing retirees were spending so much time online.

In Brooksville, Maine, one outage in February appeared linked to a service by Verizon Communications that gave residents in remote areas more choice of Internet service providers (ISPs), resulting in new demand. "They just underestimated the load," state regulator Phil Lindley says.

Illinois ISP Cumberland Internet in December asked two phone firms for more capacity because customers couldn't get online. "It happens over and over," Cumberland's Clair Kaye says.

While regular phone calls last six minutes to 10 minutes, on average, Net sessions average more than an hour, says David Bolger of the U.S. Telecom Association.

Vermont regulators required Verizon to refund $30,000 to consumers because Verizon failed to deliver dial tones fast enough last year. Verizon is adding equipment to process more calls. And it is trying to get heavy Internet users to use digital subscriber lines, which use a separate network. "We are responding to a lot of these hot-spot areas. It happens all over," says Paul Lacouture, Verizon's president of network services.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001

Answers

Net sessions average more than an hour

ROTFLMAO

Understatement of the new century! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001