ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 1, 1996 TAG: 9611010049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
The unrelenting growth of the Internet is severely straining the nation's telecommunications system, causing local telephone service failures in some areas and perpetual ``brownouts'' on the computer network.
The congestion is especially acute in California, which has a higher proportion of Internet users than any other region of the country. A recent study by Pacific Telesis in the San Francisco Bay area's Silicon Valley found that 16 percent of local telephone calls did not connect, yielding either a ``fast busy'' signal or nothing at all.
PacTel added capacity in the area, bringing the number of unconnected calls down to 1 percent, the average throughout its network. But company officials warn that such overloads could become more common as thousands of new users log on each month.
Bellcore, the joint research arm of the regional Bell telephone companies, has found similar slowdowns in major metropolitan areas on the East Coast, and in some suburban areas as well.
``We're coming close to gridlock,'' said Amir Atai, director of network and traffic performance at BellCore. ``It won't make a difference for the person who is already on line, but what about the next user who is trying to make a 911 call?''
Life is no bowl of cybercherries for those who manage to log in, either. Users of the World Wide Web especially are faced with seemingly interminable delays as they send e-mail or try to navigate around the network that the frustrated now refer to as the ``World Wide Wait.''
LENGTH: Short : 37 linesby CNB