Batteries the Focus of AT&T Investigation

An anonymous reader writes "AT&T is focusing on the batteries supplied by Avestor as the cause of its 2006 equipment explosion in a suburban Houston neighborhood. The carrier says it has 17,000 of those same batteries still in its network. Some photos of the equipment that was shredded in the blast are also available."

Awesome case mod !

[Anonymous Coward]

See...
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=13 1210&page_number=1&image_number=8&site= [lightreading.com]

for a totally over-the-top case mod. It's Unreal meets Terminator.

Re:China: Possible Source of Problem

[ScrewMaster]

No kidding ... for several months while I had AT&T Broadband for cable service I never could get a decent picture. Internet speeds were nothing to write home about either. Techs came out a number of times (usually contractor types, not AT&T-trained) and one of them put in an amplifier. Which worked just fine at amplifying the noise (and he stuck $90 on my bill.)

Finally I called to cancel my service because I wasn't getting that for which I was paying. The operator convinced me to give them one more try ... I said OK. Next day (a Sunday, believe it or not) this cherrypicker truck pulls up, with AT&T emblazoned on the side. This time I got a technician that had been through AT&T's in-house training program and wasn't afraid to get off his ass and climb a few poles. So he spent about three hours going down the street, pole-by-pole, until he called down and said "Whoops! Here's your problem" and tossed down a few feet of burned and blackened cable with squirrel toothmarks all over it, right down to the bare copper. It was a mess. So he replaced the cable for the whole block and we all got a great picture (and I got my 4 mbits/sec back.) Guy was pretty cool, really knew his stuff. It was like dealing with the AT&T of old. He also took the price of that stupid wideband amp off my bill -and- let me keep it! So I kept my service for a few more years until I moved.

I never found any squirrel bones, but I hope the 90 VDC feed cooked the little bastard.