oz
01-16-2008, 11:50 AM
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 16, 2008, 11:10 a.m.
By Rick Barrett
Explosions mar AT&T video service cabinets
AT&T Corp. is replacing thousands of batteries in outdoor cabinets that provide U-verse video service after several cabinets have exploded or caught fire, including one in Wauwatosa.
No one has been injured in the explosions, although the force of the Wauwatosa blast, on Christmas morning, sent the cabinet's steel doors flying about six feet.
U-verse, a combination of TV and music channels plus high-speed Internet access, has been available in selected areas of Wisconsin for about 10 months. The cabinets provide U-Verse to neighborhoods where the service is available.
There are more than 240 cabinets in the City Milwaukee, according to a recent Journal Sentinel analysis.
In a statement released this morning, AT&T said: "As we gained experience with these batteries, we found they no longer met our stringent performance and safety criteria. As a result, we have decided to move forward with the removal of all Avestor batteries as quickly as possible. Since these batteries are used only as a backup to commercial power, we do not anticipate any interruptions to U-verse service during this process. It's important to understand that this issue is solely related to batteries used for backup power in some of our cabinets. It has nothing to do with our service or core U-verse technology in any way. Our U-verse deployment and strategy remains on-track and we're very pleased with our progress."
By Rick Barrett
Explosions mar AT&T video service cabinets
AT&T Corp. is replacing thousands of batteries in outdoor cabinets that provide U-verse video service after several cabinets have exploded or caught fire, including one in Wauwatosa.
No one has been injured in the explosions, although the force of the Wauwatosa blast, on Christmas morning, sent the cabinet's steel doors flying about six feet.
U-verse, a combination of TV and music channels plus high-speed Internet access, has been available in selected areas of Wisconsin for about 10 months. The cabinets provide U-Verse to neighborhoods where the service is available.
There are more than 240 cabinets in the City Milwaukee, according to a recent Journal Sentinel analysis.
In a statement released this morning, AT&T said: "As we gained experience with these batteries, we found they no longer met our stringent performance and safety criteria. As a result, we have decided to move forward with the removal of all Avestor batteries as quickly as possible. Since these batteries are used only as a backup to commercial power, we do not anticipate any interruptions to U-verse service during this process. It's important to understand that this issue is solely related to batteries used for backup power in some of our cabinets. It has nothing to do with our service or core U-verse technology in any way. Our U-verse deployment and strategy remains on-track and we're very pleased with our progress."