Vandalism in Arizona Shut Down Internet, Cellphone, Telephone Service Across State | Washington Free Beacon

[Louis Mamakos]

http://blog.level3.com/level-3-network/the-10-most-bizarre-and-annoying-causes-of-fiber-cuts/

"6. One of the dumbest reasons I can think of for an outage is downright vandalism.  It doesn’t happen all that often, but it certainly happens more often than it should.  People sometimes cut the fiber thinking it has value and can be sold in pieces.  Or they vandalize it in other ways.  We can attribute about 7% of our annual outages to people using our fiber cable for gun practice.  More often than not, it happens in the rough parts of town. Making the repairs usually requires that we dispatch a couple of body guards with our techs, just to keep everyone out of harm’s way.  By the way – it’s not copper!"

Many of the other outage causes are equally stupid.  Heck, when I worked at one of these companies, I saw a wonderful photo from a field technician that visited a signal regenerator "hut" in the middle of a long fiber route.  The equipment there had a failure of a power supply.  When he pulled out the failed board to investigate, he found a large, dead snake that had crawled in there and tucked himself around the cozy warm power supply.  At least it didn't bit him.   

We had an Internet POP in telco colocation in Miami.  We were advised to NEVER be there after dark, and to make sure we called the NOC when we entered the building to work on our equipment.  The That site was in a bad part of town near the railroad tracks and the fiber right-of-way.  The company policy of not having firearms at the workplace was "relaxed" at this site.  If they got an intrusion alarm if we didn't disarm the alarm system properly their security company would arrive, open the door and just let the dogs in.  Despite the photos of the glamorous data centers stacked up with servers, its a nasty world out there.  

Managing outside plant infrastructure is quite a challenge.  You don't have infinite dollars available to defend against all sorts of mechanical insults and damage, so you design networks to withstand facility failures by using diversity in the network design.  That CenturyLink didn't have adequate diversity in their network is a question that also needs investigation.  Often, its a question of "you get what you paid for."

louie
wa3ymh