By Jo Best, 19 August 2003 15:14
NEWS US telco Verizon Communications looks set to have its knuckles rapped over its failure to deliver during the blackout in New York last week. While criticism was heaped on mobile operators, whose less than stellar performance during the power cut saw service dropping out across the region, Verizon stands accused of letting down the emergency services' telecoms network. During the power outage, a phone service used by ambulance central command to direct teams on the ground to incidents crashed several times as a result of an equipment failure at a local switching station. The collapse drew strong criticism from New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who is now seeking a meeting with the company, saying: "Everybody had a problem with Verizon. We have to make sure this doesn't happen again." In a statement, the company claimed that 99 per cent of its network "worked as expected" during the blackout with "all hospitals, essential services and 911 experiencing no significant problems".
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