Switch Breakdown Shuts Off Phones

All telephones in the University were temporarily inactivated yesterday afternoon.

Robert McGuire, local manager of New England Telephone Company's Cambridge office, said the cause of the disorder was a machine failure in the electronic switching office which handles the centrex system.

McGuire said the 495 and 498 exchanges lost their dial tone completely for five minutes at 2:25 p.m., and that for the next 25 minutes "people were getting intermittent service." McGuire said the two exchanges were fully restored at 2:55 p.m.

McGuire said he did not know what caused the machine to break down or if it was likely to occur again soon.