TransAtlantic Cable Break

Fri Jun 22 15:56:32 UTC 2007

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007, Hank Nussbacher wrote:
>> Tell that to the 10 gig wave customers who lost service. Very few cable
>> systems provide protection at the 10 gig wave level.
>
> If you don't pay the extra amount for a protected circuit, why should your 
> circuit get protection for free when others have to pay for it?  Now, if 
> there are 10G customers with protected circuits who lost service, then 
> hopefully they have in their contract hefty penalty clauses against the 
> carrier.  If not, then they are just plain stupid.

Is paying for "protected circuits" actually worth it.  Or are you better 
off just buying two circuits and using both during normal conditions. 
Use switching at layer 3 to the remaining circuit during abnormal 
conditions.  Most of the time, you get twice the capacity for only twice
the price instead of a "protected circuit" where you only get the once 
the capacity for twice the price.

Of course, there is still the problem some facility provider will "groom" 
both your circuits on to the same cable.  If you are buying pre-emptable 
circuits, hopefully you understand what that means.