BELLSOUTH OUTAGE. Because BellSouth's equipment has varying degrees of impact on the service provided to the CLECs, restoring service from damaged BellSouth equipment is different. The outage will probably impact a number of Carriers simultaneously. However, the ECC will be able to initiate immediate actions to correct the problem. A disaster involving any of BellSouth's equipment locations could impact the CLECs, some more than others. A disaster at a Central Office (CO) would only impact the delivery of traffic to and from that one location, but the incident could affect many Carriers. If the Central Office is a Serving Wire Center (SWC), then traffic from the entire area to those Carriers served from that switch would also be impacted. If the switch functions as an Access Tandem, or there is a tandem in the building, traffic from every CO to every CLEC could be interrupted. A disaster that destroys a facility hub could disrupt various traffic flows, even though the switching equipment may be unaffected. The NMC would be the first group to observe a problem involving BellSouth's equipment. Shortly after a disaster, the NMC will begin applying controls and finding re-routes for the completion of as much traffic as possible. These reroutes may involve delivering traffic to alternate Carriers upon receiving approval from the CLECs involved. In some cases, changes in translations will be required. If the outage is caused by the destruction of equipment, then the ECC will assume control of the restoration.
