Dunedin gremlins bug calls in Chch

Press, 1 December 1988, Page 1

Dunedin gremlins bug calls in Chch

By

DEBORAH MCPHERSON

A Television New Zealand children’s programme’s “phone-in” competition in Dunedin yesterday caused further intermittent disruption to Christchurch telephone services. “We were not to blame this time,” said Telecom’s Christchurch public relations administrator, Mrs Cherry Armitage. TVNZ’s “After School” programme had a regular telephone competition, which was rotated to different centres each week. Yesterday the competition was held in Dunedin, causing an overload of the Dunedin exchange, which flowed on to the Christchurch exchange between 3.40 p.m. and 4 p.m. The problems came at the end of nearly two weeks of disrupted services in Christchurch. Other centres were also affected yesterday with the Hamilton exchange placing restrictions on toll calls for the duration of the competition. In Christchurch, restrictions were put on all local calls for 10 minutes from 3.50 p.m. to prevent serious problems, said Mrs Armitage. TVNZ had been co-operating and letting it know in advance which centres would hold the competition each week, so Telecom had been prepared, said Mrs Armitage. It warned its exchanges that national restrictions would be placed on toll calls for the duration of the competition. The disruptions were annoying but were not a serious problem. “We felt we had been in full control today,” said Mrs Armitage.