BS: Manchester (UK) 'Catters cut off !

Subject: BS: Manchester (UK) 'Catters cut off !
From: HuwG
Date: 31 Mar 04 - 06:23 AM

In the early hours of Monday morning, a fire in a service tunnel near the central Telephone Exchange in Manchester, in the North-West UK, cut off telephone access to much of the Greater Manchester area, and parts of Cheshire and Derbyshire.

Including me ! I am still recovering from the experience of two days of being cut off from the rest of the world. And, I learn that since I was unable to post (via e-mail) a job application in time, I will not be considered for it. Curses !

Apparently, emergency services centres (Police, Fire, Ambulance) had to rely on their staffs' personal mobile 'phones - until the overloaded mobile 'phone networks crashed in their turn.

However, all praise to British Telecom engineers who restored what had been reduced to a tunnel full of molten scrap in only two days.