Breaks in physical plant that occur in maintaining a public switched
telephone network (PSTN) are tracked by receiving notices that correspond
to incidences in which physical plant is broken in performing maintenance
tasks on the PSTN for a defined time interval. Information specifying a
total number of maintenance tasks performed on the PSTN during the
defined time interval is also received. The information associated with
the maintenance tasks in which the physical plant in the PSTN is broken
and the information associated with the total number of maintenance tasks
performed on the PSTN is stored in a searchable database. By storing PSTN
maintenance information related to incidences in which physical plant is
broken along with information related to the total number of maintenance
tasks performed, a database user may be able to track whether the number
of times that physical plant is broken is acceptable in view of the total
number of maintenance tasks being performed or whether action needs to be
taken to reduce the number of times that physical plant is broken by
technicians in servicing the PSTN.