🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <telecom17.8.1@massis.lcs.mit.edu>,
George Beuselinck  <georgeb@mhv.net> wrote:
>'A technical problem on the Skytel paging network led to a nationwide
>bout of beeper madness, as a digital deluge of erroneous call-me-back
>messages swept over more than 100,000 unwitting pager customers'
>
>o Skytel: "one frequency of our one-way nationwide network experienced
>           an anomaly in the database that caused" erroneous pages".
>
>  - the 'technoid' explanation for what happened to 100K+ customers:
>  - a number was displayed on their beeper that looked like a phone
>    number;
>  - 'thousands obligingly tried to return the call' at 8 AM EST. 
>
>o 'it got worse ... three dozen especially diligent customers' recognized
>   the number as an identification (PIN) number.
>
>  - they dialed Skytel, entered that code and their own phone numbers.
>
>  - 'unbeknownst to them, the Skytel system then efficiently zapped those
>    real phone numbers out:  to the same 100,000 pager customers.
>    Ever eager, thousands of them then returned calls to the diligent 36'.
>
>  - they got 300 calls an hour or more, still 40 an hour in the afternoon o
>  'The result was an embarrassing communication chasm in the Wireless Age'.
>
>o the real explanation behind what happened:
>
>  - a SKytel customer was trying to reactivate her service;
>
>  - somehow she was assigned 'a terribly wrong PIN:'
>    one linked to a secret code Skytel uses to broadcast news to 100K users.
>
>  - the networks computer saw the PIN was wrongly linked and rejected 
>    it;
>
>  - 'but the Skytel staff successfully overcame the computers
>    recalcitrance'.
>
>  - Scott Hamilton, Mtel (Skytels parent company) spokesman:
>  
>   "With any kind of computer system, from time to time, numbers have to
>   be jiggled, and they were attempting to jiggle.  It was just a mistake."
>
>o 'Then the Skytel staffer, ever helpful, tested the new customers PIN
>   by zapping the 7-digit number -- which looks suspiciously like a
>   phone number -- over the network so it would show up on the display'.
>



The explanation given by Mr. Beuselinck, originally posted to 
comp.dcom.telecom, a moderated newsgroup, was more coherent than
that given by a Reuters story I saw, but still leaves questions.

What was the initial event? I'm guessing it was the transmission
of the PIN to the customers as an apparent phone number, and that
this was human error.

How was the positive feedback loop initiated? It would seem that
it was done by the "three dozen" customers who recognized the
number as a PIN. They were able to broadcast over the Skytel
system by using the PIN as such, either unwittingly or through
some privilege they had as subscribers to the news service.
What they broadcast, if I understand Mr. Beuselinck correctly,
was their own phone numbers.

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