Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/1999/07/21/bt_cuts_off_nottingham/

BT cuts off Nottingham

That's right, an entire city goes without phones

By Lucy Sherriff

Posted in On-Prem, 21st July 1999 17:31 GMT

Oops. A suspected internal power failure at two of BT's exchanges has left the whole of Nottingham phoneless today. BT executives thought that the problem was under control at 3PM today, but many Nottingham numbers – including that of the City Council - were dead. Having acknowledged that it had and ongoing problem, BT said that its priority was to get the service back up and running. After that, it could start an investigation into the cause. At press time, 90 per cent of service had been restored and the remaining people were expected to be back on the phone inside an hour, BT said. A BT spokesman said that the downtime could have affected other services, such as cable. "The telephone system is so big and interconnected that there really is no such thing as an isolated fault," he said. The Register has heard (unconfirmed) reports that some parts of Derby have been disconnected too. How very embarrassing. Tee hee. ®