I wonder if Ruth reads NANOG? I knew that AT&T did this, but I never knew the name of the person with the job before. ============================= http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114610182322237181.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Ruth Gauweiler, a 55-year-old grandmother with a shock of red hair, was surfing the Internet recently to find out exactly when Madonna tickets would be going on sale. Ms. Gauweiler didn't want to miss the moment that ticket sellers opened their phone lines. An email from Ticketmaster gave her the answer: Friday April 21, at 9 a.m. So, last Friday morning, deep inside AT&T Inc.'s network control center in Bedminster, N.J., Ms. Gauweiler stood before a giant digital display graphing all the AT&T phone traffic in the world. U.S calling spiked at exactly 9 a.m., indicating a huge and sudden increase in call volume. "Madonna at Madison Square Garden," Ms. Gauweiler said. "Back on tour." Ms. Gauweiler's job is specialist for AT&T's global network operations. Thanks to her vigilance, the phone company knew not to worry that something big was going to overwhelm the network. In charge of spotting situations that could trigger "mass-calling events," Ms. Gauweiler spends her days patrolling the Internet, TV news networks and newspapers. She subscribes to every major sports team's email newsletter to keep abreast of events and regularly surfs ticket-vendor Web sites.