- 33 Thomas Street
]
AT&T gradually transitioned switches and other facilities from their former AT&T Long Lines headquarters building at 32 Avenue of the Americas, just a few blocks away, completing the move by 1999. [cite web | url = http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/telecommunications-cell-phones-phone-services/378039-1.html | title = Rudins : Telecommunications > Cell Phones from AllBusiness.com | accessdate = 2007-07-25 | format = | work = ] 33 Thomas is still used for telephone switching, but some of the space is also used as highly secure
datacenter space.On
September 17 ,1991 , management failure, power equipment failure, and human error combined to completely disable AT&T's central office switch at 33 Thomas. As a result, over 5 million calls were blocked, andFederal Aviation Administration private lines were also interrupted, disruptingair traffic control to 398 airports serving most of the northeastern United States. Because the building was designed to be self sufficient, AT&T had a load shedding agreement with theelectric utility ,Consolidated Edison , where they would voluntarily switch from utility power to on-site generators on request. This was a routine procedure that had been performed successfully in the past, but on this occasion, it went horribly wrong. After switching power sources, standard procedure was to check all the equipment power supplies, known as DC plants, for problems. But due to scheduled training, the check was not performed, and one plant went on battery backup. The alarms were not detected until it was too late to maintain uninterrupted power. [cite book
title=Review of Telephone Network Reliability and Service Quality Standards
author=United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce
year=1992
pages=iv to v]After the destruction of the
World Trade Center in theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks , AT&T Local Services restored lost facilities they acquired from the formerTeleport Communications Group based there, to 33 Thomas and 811 10th Avenue. [cite web | url = http://www.tenantwise.com/reports/wtc_relocate.asp | title = TenantWise : WTC Tenant Relocation Summary | accessdate = 2007-07-25 | format = | work = ]ee also
*
375 Pearl References
External links
* [http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=114288 Emporis listing]
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