MCI WorldCom fiber cut - Syracuse, NY

Wed Oct 6 18:40:40 UTC 1999

Let's not forget backhoe-operator school. Probably about 6 hours are 
dedicated to safety around power lines, gas lines, etc. I don't think 
"other utility" services and even mentioned.

Deepak Jain
AiNET

On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Matthew D. Lammers wrote:

> 
> Andrew, by far one of the best explanations I've read!  Excellent
> illustrations.  You're suppositions are indeed correct.
> 
> In addition to which, fiber doesn't emit a nice electrical signature that
> can be detected easily, making it hard to avoid.  Plastic, glass,
> fiberglass, kevlar and the other elements of most fiber runs lay invisible
> to many detection devices that rely upon metals content or electrical
> impulse emission (crosstalk, noise, EMF...) for detection purposes.
> 
> Now, some have written that we should encase these things with various
> high-strength metals.  I'm not willing, as an end consumer, to bear the
> increased overall costs being passed to me, because $VBC laid 10,000 miles
> (16 000 km) of protectively-encased fiber.  Costs would be staggering. In
> addition, repairs and splices more difficult in those situations where a
> backhoe manages to ding up one of these things and cause an actual cut.
> 
> In my part of Ohio, the engineering maps get updated way to infrequently
> to suit my comfort level.  We have a 3 year old fiber run into our NOC
> that is still not known to most of the high-cap techs that come out here.  
> In fact, the local gas company was boring new pipe into the ground a few
> months ago, and weren't even aware of the fiber laying 50 feet (17 m)  
> away.  All other services we're clearly marked.  As already stated, since
> fiber doesn't kill, people are complacent and wreckless around it.
> 
> -Matt.
> 
> 
> 
> Andrew Odlyzko wrote a while back:
> < 
> < 
> < Could the explanation be simpler?  Effects of gas pipeline and
> < water main breaks tend to be localized because they supply
> < commodity goods, and there is local storage (and, especially in 
> < case of water, local supplies) of those.  Hence such breaks
> < affect fewer people.  The gas supply to my kitchen does not 
> < depend on maintenance of uniform pressure in all the gas pipelines 
> < from the well off the shore of Louisiana all the way to New Jersey; 
> < my supplier has enough gas stored around here to keep pumping for
> < quite a while even if a pipeline in Kentucky is cut.  On the other
> < hand, when a fiber gets cut in Ohio, and I am trying to get some
> < bits from California, it does not help me to know that somebody
> < in Pennsylvania has terabits on her server that she is willing
> < to ship to me.
> < 
> < Andrew
> < 
> 
> 
> -- 
>   Matthew D. Lammers,
>   Columbus, Ohio, US
> 
> 