Thursday, December 09, 1999
Voice-mail crash affects thousands
Cincinnati Bell says all is back to normal now
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Thousands of Cincinnati Bell customers experienced glitches with their home voice mail messaging systems Wednesday afternoon as the company made changes intended to improve the service.
About 10,000 Tristate resi dents recently received mailings informing them that Cincinnati Bell would be making several changes to its voice mail system.
Some of those changes were scheduled to occur on Wednesday. Among them: allowing users to dial *966 instead of a seven-digit number to retrieve messages.
However, many people found out Wednesday that they could not leave a message on their home phones, or retrieve them from a remote location. After several rings, callers wound up getting a busy signal.
Gordon Baer, a photographer with several international clients, said he was caught in voice mail limbo for most of the day. Not only does he depend on voice mail to do business, a family emergency had occurred and relatives were unable to reach him for several hours, Mr. Baer said.
“My phone is my lifeline to my clientele,” Mr. Baer said. “I started paying for voice mail service because they told me it was supposed to be so much better than an answering machine.”
Spokeswoman Libby Korosec said voice mail service was back to normal by about 6:45 p.m. No cause was immediately determined.
More than 90,000 voice mail subscribers are already part of an upgraded system. For about a month, another 10,000 users of an older “voice mail platform” have been getting switched to the new system.
The voice mail crash affected more than the 10,000 users of the older system, but not everyone who gets the service. Ms. Korosec said it was not clear how many were affected.
“We don't think it's the new voice mail platform. It may be a switch into that platform,” Ms. Korosec said.
Philip Pina contributed to this report.
House OKs late-term abortion ban
Who's at fault when kids play with guns?
City high schools 'a failure'
CPS facing tough decision on levies
'Super Saturday' likely to stay - for now
Voice-mail crash affects thousands
Cincinnatian files suit over T-shirt shoot
Judge scolds adults in Justin case
Clermont discovers role on the Underground Railroad
Sewer rates to soar
Shirey review will be done in open council
Mayor wants to be rec director
Mental health agencies merge
Serious about spreading cheer
Study: New college needed
Vote to raise tax required courage
Canadian quartet's concert intense, pleasing
Clooney return to 'ER' uncertain
Diamond rolls through career of gems
GET TO IT
'Jekyll' seldom hits right chord
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
Stuff for stockings
Toddler needs special chair to sit up
'Nutcracker' mom does fancy steps
Colerain sees need for road levy
District rejects idea of arming school principals
Fernald worker database needs funds
Fire alarm saves man asleep
Girlfriend's killer gets 16 to life
High school/rec center will cost $71.9M
Killer convicted after five years
Ky. 9 stretch completed
Man overcome in blaze rescued by firefighters
NKU grad's neighbor: Didn't mean to kill her
Ohio bill declares campaign donations on Net
Project will take kids on virtual tours of Cincinnati Art Museum
Quoted words turn township meeting ugly
Sirens to be ready for tornado season
Sister tells of burying body parts
Some postal offices to be open Sundays
TRISTATE DIGEST
Warren sheriff clears new hurdle
Young driver may end up in adult court
