McLeodUSA Communications Down - Vanity

[Crusher138]

We are customers of McLeodUSA Communications. They serve businesses and customers in several states. Our phones went down two hours ago and there is no answer from customer service. I did finally get through to someone in sales who told me that it was a "nationwide, catastrophic failure" and that all of the their techs are working on it. Is anyone else a McLeodUSA customer or is any other network having issues?

[Hans]

We are in the Chicago suburbs and having no problems.

[nevergore]

Their website server appears to be down as well....

[Crusher138]

Phone service is now semi-on. Sometimes calls get through, sometimes not.

Thanks for your attention.

[JRios1968]

I’ll be in the shower...

[Arm_Bears]

Bush’s fault.

[Recovering Hermit]

About 8 years ago, McLeod had built a really nice co-location facility in Farmington Hills, MI..ran loads of fiber-optics throughout the local communities...created a pretty nice data center, with a long rows of empty cabinets just waiting to be populated by loads of communications equipment from their new customers.

A couple of years later, only a few cabinets had any gear at all, the offices were gone, and just a couple of people in and out, mostly technicians parking trucks in the back.

We took the last of our gear out of there about 4 years ago. At that time, it looked like the only thing that was still operational in the facility was the computer room itself.

The place was like a creepy ghost town.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

As an FYI, you might want to think about a wireless broadband back up for your servers. We implement a lot of them as business continuity planning. People balk at 60 bucks a month until they realize how much money they lose per hour when a backhoe driver cuts a T-1 or other similar event. Just an FYI.

PS - I say this as a worker for a major wireless company but Business continuity solutions is one of the things I try to get my customers thinking about. Whether its just backup for the email system (think sales staff) or the entire wireless office system.

Hope the info helps.

[frankjr]

“Our phones went down two hours ago and there is no answer from customer service.”

Wait a second, if your phones went down how did you call?

/s

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping.

[NonValueAdded]

sound advice

[BallyBill]

Nationwide Catastrophic Failure.

Google that and see if Harry Reid comes up.

[Noumenon]

Are you logged in?

[hughesm1]

This POS company is still around? They went bankrupt in 2001, again in 2006.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

It amazing how many people laugh until I slip in a ROI after a little probing. Sales per year/ number or sales people/hours they work, etc. = cost per hour per person X number of hours (days) a system is down... :o)

[nevergore]

Whose wireless broadband are you recommending?

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

I wont recommend any company on this thread because the idea was offered as advise, no matter which service you use. I think we have the best network and speeds, but more important than that is to think about the whole business continuity issue with companies relying so much on technology.

Any backup wireless solution is better than none. I don't have a problem telling people who I work for but this topic supersedes that. If you want to know FReepmail me and I'll be glad to discuss any topics with you, but as a FReeper, I wont resort to "pimping" myself. Don't want to get that goofy looking pimp.gif sent my way :o)

[cowtowney]

Sept. 17, 2007

Paetec Holding Corp. sealed a deal to purchase telecom provider McLeodUSA for $492 million, marking the end of independence for one of the leading lights of the dot-com boom. The combination will create one of the largest rivals to AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications for business-telephony services.