Verizon has made an enormous amount of progress in our recovery efforts, but there is still much work to be done.
We have restored service to large customers, including the New York Stock Exchange. When the NYSE reopened Monday, Sept. 17, volume on our network was two-to-three times normal, and our network successfully handled a record-setting volume of more than 2.3 billion shares traded.
Verizon has re-routed more than half of the 3.5 million data circuits that had been served by our West Street central office which was in the ground zero area and sustained heavy damage during the attack.
We are working now on the labor-intensive job of bringing back service to small businesses and residences in the World Trade Center area. We are rolling 70 reels, or 50 miles, of cable into the disaster area to begin to bring back service to these customers.
We estimate that from 9,000 to 14,000 businesses have been affected and from 35,000 to 40,000 residences are in the area served by our West Street central office. We have 1,600 people working to restore this damaged switching center.
For business customers in the affected area, the number for our repair office is your area code + 890-7711; for residence customers, the number is your area code + 890-6611.
In the meantime, we've placed 450 payphones south of Broome Street in lower Manhattan and free calls may be made from these phones to anyone in New York City. We have also placed 186 wireless payphones in southern 44 in the devastated area, providing free three-minute calls to anyone in the continental U.S.
In addition, we have established a walk-in Business Recovery Center at 80 Pine Street, near Maiden Lane, to serve the telecommunications needs of businesses in the affected area.
