LOCAL : Valley Phone Service ‘Switched’ Off

Long-distance telephone service to and from the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas was disrupted for several hours today when a switch failed at a phone center in Sherman Oaks, officials of AT&T; said.

The 8:30 a.m. equipment failure cut service to AT&T; long-distance customers in the 818, 805 and portions of the 213 area codes, said Kelly Williams, a spokeswoman for the company. She said the affected areas apparently included the San Gabriel Valley, West Los Angeles, the Santa Clarita Valley and Ventura County.

Williams declined to reveal the number of customers affected “for proprietary reasons.” She said service was restored when computerized equipment rerouted calls to other circuits. By noon, fewer than 10% of long-distance calls from those areas were not going through the first time, she said.

Some business customers reported they were completely without service for more than two hours during what is normally the busiest part of their day. “It’s caused a hell of a problem because we do everything by phone,” said Wade Ambrose, a broker with Jones and Associates in Westlake Village. “We were out of business. Our customers couldn’t reach us and we couldn’t reach them. This has cost us multiples of thousands of dollars.”