Fiber cut in SF area

Mon Apr 13 23:35:12 UTC 2009

--- On Mon, 4/13/09, chris.ranch at nokia.com <chris.ranch at nokia.com> wrote:

>> From: Peter Beckman
>> Subject: RE: Fiber cut in SF area
> >  Total cost...is about $3000 per mile for
> equipment

> I get the feeling you haven't deployed or operated large
> networks.  You never did say what the multiplier
> was.  How many miles or detection nodes there
> were.  Think millions.  The number that popped
> into my head when thinking of active detection measures for
> the physical network is $billions.

AT&T: 888,000 route miles(1).
Verizon: 485,000 route miles(2).

If we assume that 1/4 of AT&T and Verizon's route-miles are in the US(3), this would mean a capital expense of $666M and $364M respectively, not including any costs incurred for maintenance, monitoring, repair, false positive etc.  In addition, as has been noted, this system wouldn't PREVENT a failure, it would just give you some warning that a failure may be coming, probably by a matter of minutes.  

In the words of Randy Bush, "I encourage my competitors to do this."

David Barak
Need Geek Rock?  Try The Franchise: 
http://www.listentothefranchise.com

1) http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=26554
2) http://mediumbusiness.verizon.com/about/network.aspx
3) I believe this to be an underestimate.