Verizon: 95% of dial tones in Lower Manhattan restored

Verizon Communications has restored 95% of the dial tones in Lower Manhattan it lost when the company’s 140 West Street facility was damaged heavily in the collapse of the World Trade Center, Verizon Vice Chairman and President Larry Babbio said yesterday.

About 150,000 private circuits had been restored, leaving about 650,000 still to go, Babbio said. He said the first phase of the restoration would be completed in three to four weeks, but the second phase--involving the replacement the temporary equipment brought in as an interim step--could take as much as a year. However, he quickly noted the second phase will not impact customer service.

In addition to the work being done on the wireline side of the business, Verizon Wireless has built 50 new wireless sites in the area. The company lost 14 sites as a result of the tragedy; the remaining new sites are serving new demand that has arisen since Sept. 11.

Babbio praised the efforts of more than 2000 workers involved in the recovery effort, the vast majority of which are Verizon employees.

“We are benefiting from a great deal of intellectual capacity,” Babbio said. He equated the effort to restoring service to a city the size of Cincinnati. “On the data side, it’s probably five times the size of Cincinnati,” he said.

Verizon’s experience with natural disasters has helped in this effort, Babbio said.

“We deal with smaller versions of this frequently, and that experienced helped us ramp up,” he said.

Nevertheless, Babbio conceded this experience is like no other faced by the company.

“With a hurricane, you typically get a lot of damage to the outside plant because of all the wind and water, but nothing inside,” he said. “This is unique, because we suffered heavy damage to both the inside and outside plant.”

As he monitors the recovery effort, Babbio has found time to attend to other aspects of the company’s business. He said Verizon is not interested in acquiring any part of AT&T, regardless of the cost.

“I didn’t see anything in their assets that would be a good value for us,” he said. “There are no businesses we feel we need to buy to be a successful company.”