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| Iraq |
| The Phones Are Coming On |
| 2004-03-02 |
| The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) today announced the integration of 13 new telephone switches and an International Satellite Gateway with the 14 existing switches of the Iraqi Telephone and Postal Company (ITPC) in Baghdad. The new switches and international gateway were installed by USAID partner Bechtel. Before the conflict, 1.1 million Iraqis, half of which were in Baghdad, subscribed to the ITPC for landline telephone service. A large percentage of the capital city's switching centers were damaged during the conflict and service disrupted. In Baghdad, 240,000 out of 540,000 telephone lines were out of service at 12 separate exchange sites. As part of the CPA's overall Reconstruction Program, USAID and its implementing partner, Bechtel, restored the sites, which allow the ITPC to bring all telephone lines back into operation. Containerized, modern telephone switches were installed and are connected to and being monitored and controlled from the new Network Operations Center at Al Mamoun, the largest site in the country. The ITPC staff is connecting network wiring and programming subscriber numbers to allow final activation of the lines. Over 100,000 individual subscriber lines have now been connected. All fully operational telephones nationwide can access the switch at Al Mamoun and the International Satellite Gateway. Once connected to the gateway, outbound international calls can be made using a prepaid phone card. Active subscribers are now receiving inbound international calls. USAID and Bechtel collaborated closely with the ITPC on this project. ITPC crews performed much of the work including clearing the rubble and leveling the sites, digging new cable ducts, locating intact cable and splicing cables and wiring of the main distribution frames of the switches. In addition to the exchange switches, USAID partner Bechtel is restoring portions of the main 2,000 kilometer north-south fiber optic backbone, connecting Dahuk in the far north to Umm Qasr in the extreme south. Connectivity between all cities north and south of Baghdad will deliver the voice and data communications Iraq needs both for its immediate requirements and for future economic development. |
| Posted by:Chuck Simmins |
| #14 It will be interesting to see whether insurgents target the phone system or use the system to surf for pictures of naughty women displaying far too much ankle. Note - I am impressed with what I am getting for my tax dollars. It would have been easy to burn through the supplemental just buying bullets and burning up gas flying around F-15's. Some flights are necessary but F-15's won't help much against an urban based insurgency. With the upgrades to water treatment, addition of power production capacity and general repair of the poorly maintained oil industry systems, the Iraqis should have a decent infrastructure to build a prosperous country out of. Hopefully the Iraqis don't plan to take a seat between the Haitians and Palestinians on the political short bus. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-3-2 10:28:41 PM |
| #13 killjoy story could be wonderful news. except now attack coordination will be better. maybe chainey is listening in. mixed bag. ramalamadingdong. |
| Posted by: cosmic muffin 2004-3-2 10:06:13 PM |
| #12 LH, spirits are running high right now with the election coming up. I've gathered (I'm such a sleuth :-) that a fair percentage of regulars here don't exactly admire the Democrats and Mr. Kerry, and will prolly say so when given a chance. Rather unavoidable in a spirited democracy. My personal advice would be grin and bear it, or not. The good material is still going to be here. I personally will avoid taking the more gratuitous shots at Mr. Kerry. But I may not be able to avoid taking every shot at him :-) |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-3-2 7:47:23 PM |
| #11 I'm with LH on this. I see increasing amounts of stuff on RB that I want to 'Peshawar'. Perhaps Fred should introduce a comment Peshawared feature. BTW if some of you were wondering. 'Peshawar' is a reference to 'What has this got to do with the price of Kalashnikovs in Peshawar?', i.e. what is its relevance. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-3-2 6:38:53 PM |
| #10 Peshawar You meannie this is my last post until the Rapture. |
| Posted by: Napoleon VII 2004-3-2 6:37:18 PM |
| #9 But LH, how do you separate the subjects? The election has a direct bearing on how, if at all, the WOT will be conducted. |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-3-2 6:16:16 PM |
| #8 Liberalhawk, just one little tiny addendum, Bechtel is a private corp, no shares sold period, ownership of the company stays in family. I know because my father worked for them, the best they do is set up mutual funds through an agency like Fremont Funds group. Anyway its a nitpick but I thought it was kinda important to point that out anyway ;) |
| Posted by: Valentine 2004-3-2 4:31:33 PM |
| #7 Note the Peshawar refers to the comments, not to the excellent post. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-3-2 3:54:22 PM |
| #6 Peshawar - and let me reaffirm what i mean. This a website about the war and related grand strategic issues, IIUC (Fred has said this repeatedly) Some come here to analyze, speculate, see news that we'd have a hard time finding in one place. Others come here to cheer successes for the US and its allies - to bemoan successes for the other side - to rant about the other side, etc. There are lots of places to go where the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc is ONLY of interest in so far as it helps/hurts Dubya/Kerry/whomever. I find comment like this thoroughly boring and predictible. On a leftie site some idiot will see failure in Iraq as a "boost" for Kerry. On a rightie site some idiot will see good news from Iraq as a boost for "bush". I might as well comment on a post like this what impact it will have on my stock portfolio - ya think Bechtel is underpriced, anyone? Look, theres a homefront section, a fifth column section, short attention span section. I havent "peshawared" anything there in a long time and i wont. For the most part i simply try to avoid those sections. We've got a Presidential election year now, the first since 9/11. Now if y'all want to weigh every bit of news for what it does to one political campaign or another, feel free. But all of us will lose a valuable resource if we do. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-3-2 3:53:40 PM |
| #5 "Can you hear me now? Good!" |
| Posted by: BH 2004-3-2 3:10:56 PM |
| #4 DNC spin will be: "In yet another example of the unfairness meted out by the Halliburton influenced CPA, residents of Occupied Iraq are forced to use modems, while the US population basks unfairly in the use of Broadband internet access methods. The Bush Administration and its oil industry cronies have not put forth a plan to bring the basic human right of high speed internet access to the opressed people of Iraq. " |
| Posted by: frank martin 2004-3-2 3:09:58 PM |
| #3 These guys are getting brand-spankin' new stuff. Time will tell if they're up to the task of taking the ball and running with it. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-3-2 2:10:39 PM |
| #2 kerry screams - a quagmire in iraq - let me testify......... |
| Posted by: Dan 2004-3-2 1:39:14 PM |
| #1 kerry screams - a quagmire in iraq - let me testify......... |
| Posted by: Dan 2004-3-2 1:39:13 PM |