Dead Phone Syndrome Strikes Again…
Thanks to a tip from a reader, we were informed that Bldg 4823 was recently without dial tone for an extended period of time this morning. We were informed around 8:00 AM this Sunday morning, well outside the listed system maintenance times. As we have learned from our recent interest into this public safety arena that usually when there is no dial tone it means that there is no power. I would love to say that this is an isolated incident, but ever since they came online we have been hearing about these problems or even experiencing them first hand on occasion.
While power may not be the reason behind the outage, it does show that once again 911 services have been compromised. For SOFA residents living overseas on this can present a situation that calls into question the reasoning behind having an on base phone. How are we to notify SFS or the FD of a problem in our home? How about if we spotted a fence jumper as is often seen in the West and East housing areas? In an era when everyone has heightened awareness to acts of terrorism you would think that having phones that were reliable, especially on a military installation, would be of concern. I can say for a certainty that this wasn’t an issue when the 374th Communications Squadron was providing service to the residents.
I certainly hope that this serious public safety issue is corrected immediately because I would hate to have this issue come to head after something truly serious happened.
OUTAGE STATUS UPDATE @ 6:52PM
Dial tones have returned to the residents of Bldg 4823, but incoming calls do not ring within the home. After several test calls, residents have determined that though there is no ring, if the receiver is lifted they can continue to have a conversation. Obviously the residents only picked up the phone because they knew another person was calling at that time though no ringing occurred.