fiber cut 19 May/PM -> 20 May/AM in Ashburn, VA (lawnmower?!)

Fri May 21 02:36:10 UTC 2004

> Since none of the usual suspects have noted it, I'll give a cursory
> nod to an ILEC (Verizon) fiber cut that happened mid-afternoon
> yesterday in Ashburn, VA.  About a thousand POTS customers were down
> (including several OOB dialups of which I am aware in the Equinix
> facility in Ashburn), as well as some T1 and faster loops to Equinix
> and elsewhere in the immediate area.  Outage was likely off the radar
> because despite the big concentration of connectivity in the affected
> area, the natural cost disadvantage of the ILEC meant that few
> circuits of consequence were riding that fiber.
>
> Service was resumed after approximately 12 hours.  RFO given was that
> the fiber cut was caused by a commercial lawnmower.  Humorous comments
> left as an exercise to the reader.
>
>                                         ---Rob

Either raise the Blade or Lower the Fiber ! The big issue I saw as
contractor was that the fiber was laid without a tracer nor anchored as the
IEEE and building codes don't address the installation and even then the
landscapers come in and move things around. Pretty soon the fiber was right
on top and all you have to do is crack it just a little and the game is over
for 12 hours.

Peter