NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: A Ridiculous Failure of Critical Infrastructure
A comparison point. Probably approaching 20 years ago when I was living in Topanga Canyon, General Telephone (now Verizon) replaced the stand-alone DMS-10 switch (a real dog) with a remote terminal fed from a GTD-5 EAX in Santa Monica. One day the interconnect failed, completely cutting all normal phone service in the canyon (this was long before cell service was available in such an area -- Old Topanga is still a cellular dead zone to this day). General brought in mobile banks of pay phones that residents could use for free (as I recall even for domestic long distance) and basically made an effort to keep everyone informed about what was going on. Fast forward to a few years ago here in the Woodland Hills suburban section of L.A. City. When a swerving driver totalled a local b-box, cutting off phone and Internet service, AT&T made no effort at all to offer help, information, or workarounds. I was the first person to report (exactly!) what had happened (and I just *dare* you to try explain to 611 that a b-box has been wiped out -- the repair guy will keep insisting that he wants you to unplug and plug back in your phones and power cycle the DSL modem!) In fact, AT&T *never* had any useful public information on the voice/data outage that I could obtain from their repair service or anywhere else officially. I learned everything about the status from chatting with the team rebuilding the b-box on the corner, and passed that info along to neighbors myself. It took them about two days to rebuild the box from scratch. Hint: Always keep cans of chilled Diet Coke around for such situations as "icebreakers" to offer when initially approaching the crew. So much for "critical infrastructure" in the Internet Age. --Lauren-- NNSquad Moderator - - - On 12/01 14:23, Lauren Weinstein wrote: > > > ----- Forwarded message from Dave Farber <dave@farber.net> ----- > > Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 15:10:04 -0500 > From: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net> > Subject: [IP] A Ridiculous Failure of Critical Infrastructure > Reply-To: dave@farber.net > To: ip <ip@v2.listbox.com> > > > > > > Begin forwarded message: > > > From: "Atkinson, Robert" <rca53@COLUMBIA.EDU> > > Date: December 1, 2009 2:54:52 PM EST > > To: CYBERTELECOM-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM > > Subject: Re: A Ridiculous Failure of Critical Infrastructure > > Reply-To: Telecom Regulation & the Internet > > <CYBERTELECOM-L@LISTSERV.AOL.COM> > > > > > This is the sort of event that can start the dominoes falling toward > > "more regulation." Network outages that effectively strand individuals > > (read "voters") for any length of time is the one thing that politicians > > and regulators can understand and react to, much more readily than vague > > network neutrality, competition, technology or pricing issues. Network > > outages affect constituents immediately and obviously so politicians and > > regulators will feel compelled to "do something." This instance won't > > be a triggering event but if similar outages on a "critical > > infrastructure" occur on a regular basis and make the news, pressure > > will grow and grandstanding politicians will latch onto "saving the > > internet" as a great issue. Service providers screw up like this at > > their own peril. > > > > Bob > > > > > > On 12/1/09 2:54 AM, "Matt Larsen - Lists" <lists@MANAGEISP.COM> wrote: > > > > Some kind of combination of failure between Charter and Qwest has left > > tens of thousands of people in Nebraska without Internet and has > > disrupted the Internet and phone services for thousands more. Right > > now, the outage is going on 12 hours and there is no ETA for repair in > > sight. > > > > The word coming down is that the outage is on a Qwest fiber, but it > > looks to me like both parties should be on the hot seat for not having > > the ability to route around the problem. There was a four hour > > outage > > on Charter a week ago that was caused by a fiber cut in Gothenburg, > > Nebraska. > > That one killed everything west of the cut, but it was small potatoes > > compared to this one. Is this truly the level of performance that we > > can expect from our major Internet backbone providers? It took me > > about 10 seconds to re-route my traffic to a backup provider - you > > would > > think that a couple of multimillion dollar companies would be able to > > sort out a problem of this nature in a reasonable amount of time. The > > small CLEC that I use for my backup connection had enough capacity to > > route around the problem and was even able to lend me a little bit > > after > > 5pm when the traffic on their network (mostly businesses) dropped off. > > It isn't rocket science to figure out how to route around an outage. > > > > Almost as frustrating is that there was NO news about the outages > > anywhere except on the social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter). > > One TV station in Hastings, NE put up a short story on their website, > > but I got more news from the tweets and FB posts that people where > > posting from their cell phones than I did from anywhere else. None of > > the network outage sites have any news about this. > > > > Could this be a harbinger of things to come? I am feeling pretty > > thankful right now that I have a choice in backbone providers and that I > > kept a second one. Diversity is a good thing, and this is a great > > example of why we need competition and multiple options for Internet. > > > > Matt Larsen > > vistabeam.com > > > > ------------------------------------------- > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > > ----- End forwarded message -----