Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past.
RCR Wireless News published three brief stories on Sept. 11, 2001.
Financial markets closed
DENVER—All U.S. financial markets have been closed following the attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
PCIA show cancelled
LOS ANGELES—The Personal Communications Industry Association’s annual trade show, which should have begun today, has been cancelled. There are no plans to reschedule.
CTIA show goes on
SAN DIEGO—This year’s Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association’s Wireless I.T. & Internet show will begin today and continue as scheduled until further notice.
Verizon’s network under heavy strain after 9/11 attacks
NEW YORK—Verizon said its wireless network experienced congestion due to heavy calling in the aftermath of yesterday’s terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. During the peak of the day, Verizon said it experienced 50- to 100-percent increases in traffic nationwide on its wireless network. Verizon said as many as 10 of its wireless cell cites in New York City were not operating last night, mostly because facilities that connect the sites to the landline network went through the World Trade Center. The company said three temporary cell sites are on standby to go into southern Manhattan as soon as emergency officials allow. The company is increasing power and redirecting capacity at several northern New Jersey cell sites to serve southern Manhattan. By 10 p.m. last night a new cell site was scheduled to be on the air in Liberty State Park in New Jersey, and two additional new cell sites were to be on the air by midnight to bolster New York City coverage. The company also said temporary cell sites have been established at the site of a fourth crash in Pittsburgh and a temporary site will soon be operational at the Pentagon. Following the attack, calls to Verizon’s networks reached twice the normal daily volumes of 115 million calls in New York City and 35 millions calls in the nation’s capital, said the company. On a normal business day Verizon handles 1.5 billion calls, it said. … Read more
Cingular: Nationwide call volume up 20% nationally
Cingular said its network continues to operate normally, with approximately a 20-percent increase in attempted calls nationwide. There are no blockages or network outages. Cingular is working to increase network capacity in the Washington, D.C., areas by deploying additional Cells on Wheels (COWs). Cingular said it is deploying six COWS in Washington. Four are already in place. Cingular Interactive lost telephony to eight cell sites in lower Manhattan as a result of a power outage that occurred about Tuesday evening. … Read more
Nextel donates phones to public safety responders in New York, D.C.
WASHINGTON—Nextel Communications Inc. said it donated 1,500 mobile phones to public safety and law enforcement officials in New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston in the aftermath of terrorist strikes Tuesday that destroyed the World Trade Center and inflicted heavy damage on the Pentagon.
Mobile-phone networks of Nextel and other wireless carriers were severely tested by the crush of calls in the Northeast and throughout the country. “The traffic volume was extraordinary,” said Audrey Schaefer, director of corporate communications at Nextel. However, Schaefer said Nextel two-way dispatch and mobile messaging—which are not dependent on the public telephone network—proved valuable in enabling subscribers to communicate when mobile telephone calls could not get through. … Read more
Verizon details network impacts
WASHINGTON—Verizon Wireless lost 11 cell sites in the attacks on Tuesday in New York and at the Pentagon but service has generally been restored except in lower Manhattan by the use of temporary sites, Jim Gerace, Verizon Wireless spokesman, told RCR Wireless News. Verizon Wireless has or is in the process of deploying 10 cell-on-wheels (COWs). Of those 10, two are in D.C. and one in Pittsburgh—near the location of the crash of the fourth aircraft, said Gerace. The 11 sites are out of service because landline service in the lower Manhattan area has been decimated and calls cannot be carried on that network. Verizon Wireless has its own switch that was not impacted but the landline network often carries calls and that is not currently possible in some areas of lower Manhattan. In a separate briefing, Larry Babbio, vice chairman of Verizon Communications’ telecom group, said that one center office in lower Manhattan is still standing but beams from the collapsed World Trade Center 7 building have penetrated the building. All of the equipment in the telecom central office is covered with soot and ash and must be vacuumed and cleaned. “We have literally a dozen floors to go through floor by floor,” said Babbio. … Read more
COO of Metrocall dies on Flight 77
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Steven D. “Jake” Jacoby, chief operating officer and executive vice president of wireless messaging company Metrocall Inc., was on board American Airlines Flight 77 yesterday, on his way to the Personal Communications Industry Association’s annual trade show, when the plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. “Taken from us yesterday morning was an outstanding father, a loving husband, an incredible and loyal friend, and a creative, dedicated steward of Metrocall,” said Bill Collins, Metrocall’s chairman, president and CEO. … Read more
Wireless industry attorney killed during Pentagon attack
WASHINGTON—Karen Kincaid, 40, a lawyer with the law firm of Wiley, Rein and Fielding, was on the airplane that was flown into the Pentagon, the law firm told the Washington Post. Kincaid was en route to the organ transplant meeting being held in conjunction with the Personal Communications Industry Association trade show in Los Angeles. … Read more
Picking up the pieces at CTIA’s Wireless IT show
SAN DIEGO—Amid the horror of yesterday’s terrorist attacks in New York City and the nation’s capital, CTIA’s Wireless I.T. conference in San Diego is continuing, even as the show’s participants individually try to grasp the fallout from the disaster. Today’s keynote address has been cancelled because of the scheduled speakers, only San Diego-based Qualcomm CEO Irwin Jacobs was able to attend. Press conferences have been cancelled. Bunches of media badges remain unclaimed in the press center. Evolving Systems, just one of the companies planning to make a splash at the show, has cancelled meetings with the press, a sponsored lunch and an after-hours party, as have many other companies. Some companies are choosing to proceed with scheduled plans. Meanwhile, CTIA event organizers are scrambling to fill speaker spots left vacant by people who were scheduled to fly out to the show yesterday. CTIA President Tom Wheeler asked for a moment of prayer before the start of yesterday’s keynote session, assuring several hundred attendees that the giant TV screen—which normally provides close-ups of featured speakers—would cut away to CNN News as new developments occurred. That happened only once, when President Bush first addressed the nation. A somber Wheeler said security at the show had been increased to protect the safety of attendees and that the trade group would be “cautious, reasonable and sober in our approach.” “Evil will not prevail,” Wheeler told attendees, in part explaining the organization’s decision to go forward with the show. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
The post #TBT: Networks reel from 9/11 damage, traffic; carriers donate phones, bring in COWs … this week in 2001 appeared first on RCR Wireless News.