MCI WorldCom fiber cut - Syracuse, NY

Wed Oct 6 00:11:55 UTC 1999

I think this is just a factor of human beings. People are more cautious 
about hitting gas or electric (hitting a gas or underground electric line 
will ruin your day for the rest of your rapidly-shortening life). If you 
hit a telephone line with your backhoe... oh, what, you mean there's people 
affected by that all over the country?

People are more cautious around things that will kill them. Perhaps this is 
a good reason to use that Titanium sheathing that someone else mentioned... 
maybe copper would be better. Copper is an excellent conductor of 
electricity. We could "protect" the bundles from animals (ostensibly) by 
pumping some juice along them.

And if the animals happen to be running backhoes, they're protected from 
them too.

D

At 07:27 PM 10/5/99 -0400, Mike Heller wrote:

>I find it interesting that we don't hear about more accidental gas
>explosions and water main breaks from backhoes.  Are the blueprints and
>posted warnings more detailed or is there more fiber than utility pipe in
>the ground?
>
>Michael Heller
>Sr. Systems Engineer
>Earthweb, Inc.
>212.448.4175
>mikeh at earthweb.com
>
>On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, Dan Hollis wrote:
>
> >
> > On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, Michael Heller wrote:
> > > Has anyone come to the conclusion that there might be a market for
> > > titanium-reinforced innerduct?
> >
> > Actually I think theres a market for armed guards to patrol fiber routes,
> > with orders to destroy backhoes on sight (of course the operator would be
> > given oh, 10 seconds to vacate the vehicle before its reduced to scrap).
> >
> > -Dan
> >
> >
> >