Verizon hopes to keep NYSE running before Monday

Jessica Hall

PHILADELPHIA: Local telephone company Verizon Communications said on Friday
it was optimistic that it would sufficiently repair communications equipment
damaged by the World Trade Center attacks to allow the United States stock
markets to begin trading on Monday.

"I think the outlook is promising. "We're hopeful, not necessarily
confident at this point, but certainly hopeful, that we can do this job,"
Verizon vice chairman Larry Babbio told a news conference.

US stock markets aim to reopen on Monday after a four-day hiatus triggered by
the deadly air attack that decimated the center of the financial world. The New
York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock market, sits about three blocks
southeast of the mountains of the World Trade Center rubble.

The reopening of the markets after the longest shutdown since the start of
World War I is contingent upon successful completion of tests to be undertaken
by the NYSE, the Nasdaq stock market, and its trading partners over the weekend.

The tests will be held throughout the weekend with a goal of having systems
running by Sunday night, said Verizon, the dominant local telephone company in
the northeastern US.

When World Trade Center Building Seven imploded on Tuesday, huge chunks of
steel slammed through a crucial Verizon network structure that served the heart
of Wall Street. That facility, which remains out of service and lacks power,
served 200,000 residential and business telephone lines, and three million
private data lines for the NYSE - or about 19 percent of the exchange's
communications service.

Five stories of steel and debris still rest against the building, which
suffered structure damage. Water used to fight the fires flooded five basement
levels, soaking delicate communications wires and equipment.

However, Verizon's Broad Street facility handles about 80 per cent of the
NYSE's needs and remains in operation despite a coating of dust and debris. It
is currently supported by backup power supplied by Verizon, and will be switched
to commercial power as soon as feasible, the company said.

New York-based Verizon has worked with city officials, emergency response
teams, rivals, and customers to reroute traffic for the financial customers in
Lower Manhattan, and add network capacity for clients' new or temporary offices
in other parts of Manhattan or New Jersey.

The repair efforts have been hampered by tons of debris that block manhole
access to underground telephone networks, which Verizon said have been rattled
by the equivalent of small earthquakes in the airplane attacks.

Not all businesses and residences in Lower Manhattan will have telephone
service by Monday, Verizon said. It could not quantify the number of customers
without service until residents and businesses return and test their phones.
Mobile wireless telephone transmitters have been put in place to supplement the
lack of landline access, and handle service for transmitters destroyed in the
attack.

"We have made an effort to deal with every trading partner of the NYSE -
small firms, large firms," Babbio said. "We have not heard of any that
is not in a position to go up on Monday. Will everyone have 100 percent of where
they normally are? No but 80 percent is probably enough to handle an average
(trading) day," Babbio said.

Some Wall Street pundits have predicted higher stock prices on the opening
with investors possibly staging a patriotic rally, but most expect a drop as
uncertainty and fear sweeps over much of the globe. Speculation mounted that the
US Federal Reserve could slash interest rates for the eighth time this year by
as early as Monday to lift the faltering economy.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.