Procedural error as root cause of major telecommunication service outages

This paper provides a statistical analysis of major telecommunications service outages, which occurred in the United States between July 1, 1992 and June 30, 1999 as a result of procedural errors. The analysis found that procedural errors are the root cause for 34% of major service outages. The frequency of major outages caused by procedural errors has increased almost 3% per quarter since July 1992. Documentation problems, insufficient training, and insufficient supervision are the major root cause subcategories among procedural errors. Almost half of major outages caused by procedural errors occur at switches (local or tandem).