TELEPHONE LINES WERE JAMMED
Telephone lines were jammed
British Telecom engineers have been working around the clock to repair local telephone services which were severely damaged by Saturday's blast.
It was estimated that on Monday 2,600 houses in the Omagh District still hadn't been reconnected because of damaged lines.
In the chaos which followed the blast, thousands of people both at home and abroad, anxious for word about friends and relatives, found their efforts thwarted because of a combination of downed telephone lines and a log jammed system.
BT put in place a number of priority emergency measures in the immediate aftermath of the bomb to assist the local community and the Emergency Services.
Omagh Exchange was reconfigured to handle the massive surge of calls, a public mobile telephone service was set up outside the hospital, and Cellnet expanded its mobile capacity to enable greater use of mobile phones.
A BT trailer was erected beside the County Hospital to provide an information service for the Emergency Services which has a critical requirement and all other affected business and residential customers.
The company said that engineers have been working 24 hours a day to repair cable damage and reestablish the network.
A BT spokesman added that the service was endeavouring to ensure that the exchange can handle all calls coming through.
British Telecom engineers have been working around the clock to repair local telephone services which were severely damaged by Saturday's blast.
It was estimated that on Monday 2,600 houses in the Omagh District still hadn't been reconnected because of damaged lines.
In the chaos which followed the blast, thousands of people both at home and abroad, anxious for word about friends and relatives, found their efforts thwarted because of a combination of downed telephone lines and a log jammed system.
BT put in place a number of priority emergency measures in the immediate aftermath of the bomb to assist the local community and the Emergency Services.
Omagh Exchange was reconfigured to handle the massive surge of calls, a public mobile telephone service was set up outside the hospital, and Cellnet expanded its mobile capacity to enable greater use of mobile phones.
A BT trailer was erected beside the County Hospital to provide an information service for the Emergency Services which has a critical requirement and all other affected business and residential customers.
The company said that engineers have been working 24 hours a day to repair cable damage and reestablish the network.
A BT spokesman added that the service was endeavouring to ensure that the exchange can handle all calls coming through.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/0116
Published Date: 20-Aug-98
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