Rolling Remedy for Big One Is Christened by Pacific Bell

Pacific Bell on Monday christened a part of a $4-million “insurance policy” that company executives are gambling will keep phone lines open even if the Big One shakes Orange County to its foundation.

A 48-foot-long tractor-trailer rig filled with banks of computers and digital phone equipment was officially rolled out by Pacific Bell officials, who touted the unit as a “potential lifesaver” in the event of a disaster such as a major earthquake.

The gleaming rig, nicknamed the Restoration Express, is the first self-contained phone center on wheels in the nation. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., for which it was made, says it can handle calls from up to 8,000 phone lines at once without relying on a centralized office.

“This is a complete central office that can be moved within a matter of hours to almost any location and start operating. It is unique,” said Jim Jevicky, Southern California account executive for AT&T.;

Pacific Bell, which serves about 800,000 county customers, has ordered a second mobile phone center, as well as a smaller unit that can be airlifted to remote locations. One of the large rigs will be based somewhere in Orange County, the other 18-wheeler in Los Angeles County. The three mobile units--which cost $1.7 million each for the two large ones and $600,000 for the smaller one--are viewed by company officials as one of the cornerstones of its evolving disaster preparations.

During last month’s devastating Northern California earthquake, Pacific Bell’s telephone network escaped widespread problems. Although several of the company’s Bay Area offices were damaged in the 7.1-intensity temblor, none of the key computer components or switching equipment was wrecked.

Service to the company’s 2.5 million Bay Area customers was never down--only interrupted by the crush of calls from friends and relatives outside the region, Pacific Bell said.

But Pacific Bell officials are quick to note that the Oct. 17 quake was not the long-predicted, much-feared Big One.

Should a more powerful temblor strike in Southern California, particularly on the Newport-Inglewood Fault running along coastal Orange County, phone company officials think that some of their three dozen local phone centers could be closed by damage to structures or switching equipment.

That could sever phone service to some communities for hours, even days.

But with the new mobile phone centers, service could be restored within an hour or two, said R.A. (Bob) Kohn, district manager of customer services for Pacific Bell’s southern division. The units could be transported to the scene of a disaster or could operate from several miles away. If the local power is out, the mobile units can run on batteries or a diesel generator.

“It is our insurance policy that during an emergency we can still provide some basic level of service,” said Kohn at Pacific Bell’s Tustin office, where executives christened the tractor-trailer rig by breaking two champagne bottles filled with confetti across its front.

“We can’t guarantee we will restore phone service to everyone--that’s not possible,” Kohn said. “But we can provide access to a phone for many people in an affected area, by maintaining public phone lines through Red Cross shelters and other disaster centers.”

A crew of four can operate the highly sophisticated hardware and computer software that makes up the guts of this rolling nerve center. It is equipped with 13,000 feet of copper and fiber-optic cable that can tap into existing phone lines at a Pacific Bell facility or splice into underground lines.

The rigs are outfitted to service up to 5,000 phone lines but can be modified to handle 3,000 more lines, Kohn said. Service priority would be given to emergency providers: police, fire, civil defense, hospitals and the military.

Advances in computers and digital hardware have allowed designers to fit all the switching equipment into one such rig. In the past, the ability to set up remote phone-switching operations has existed, but two or three tractor-trailer rigs were often needed and a linkup with an existing phone center to relay calls outside the area was always needed.

Unlike its forerunners, the Restoration Express can make long-distance and overseas calls directly without routing calls through another office.

The existence of the mobile center should help Pacific Bell avoid what happened to an Illinois phone company in May, 1988. About 35,000 Illinois Bell customers were without phone service for nearly a month after a fire in a switching station, which housed computerized equipment that connected local and long-distance calls.

“With this unit, we could roll into place and get service back to some of those customers in the same day,” Kohn said.

In Orange County, Pacific Bell services about 88% of the residential and business phone customers that General Telephone Co. serves in Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach and Westminster. A spokeswoman for Pacific Bell said an arrangement is being worked out that would allow General Telephone to use the Pacific Bell mobile center in a disaster.

Kohn said the mobile units will be used as training centers until needed in a disaster.

“At $1.7 million a piece,” Kohn said dryly, “they are a little expensive just to park and lock up.”