[RTC List] Digital Rio Dell - keeps on ticking

[William Van Hefner]

George,

To the best of my knowledge, EVERYONE was down in the area. Although
the media reports I have read thus far are factually inadequate
and based on unverified data (it's not like AT&T issues press releases
about outages), it sounds as if the fiber cut was somewhere past Rio
Dell. If that is the case, everyone NORTH of Rio Dell would be
affected. If the fiber made it as far as Rio Dell before being severed,
anyone served out of that particular central office should still have
had full access to the cable.

AT&T's microwave back-up circuit obviously did work to some extent
yesterday, as about 1% of the long distance calls I placed were actually
completed. Most outbound calls on U.S. Cellular just got me a fast busy
or all circuits busy intercept message. Although I was eventually able
to reach some local and long distance numbers, I was completely unable
to reach anyone using Verizon Wireless service until the outage was
fixed.

I'd love to know exactly what "contractor" dug up the cable. I hope
that AT&T or someone else sues them silly. If not, I would think that a
class action lawsuit by those affected would probably be in order.
After all, over 100,000 people were inconvenienced or had actual
monetary damages done to them because some bozo decided to dig a hole
without bothering to check for any underground utilities. Anyone who
digs trenches for a living knows the procedure that needs to be
followed in order to dig legally. I'm guessing that they probably
didn't have the proper permits to do their work, either. There is
probably more construction (or in this case, destruction) done without
the proper permits in Humboldt County than there are those done
legally. Someone this reckless really should have to pay for the mess
they caused. If Paris Hilton should have to go to jail for a month for
what she did, these people deserve to at least pay financial
compensation. At least Paris Hilton didn't ruin my entire day!
 

-- 

William Van Hefner
President

Vantek Communications, Inc.
3144 Broadway, Ste 3
Eureka, CA 95501
707.476.0833 ph
800.331.4638 fx
email: editor at thedigest.com



On Sat, 09 Jun 2007 08:00:18 -0700
"G W Bell" <gwbell2003 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> I live in Cutten and my Suddenlink cable internet went belly-up
> yeaterday as a result of the cable bing cut.  I have two questions:
> 
> - Was Fortuna/Eureka/Arcata SBC DSL also out of commission?
> - What is Rio Dell's redundant path, eg, is it a microwave link to
> some place upstream of where the cable was cut?  The Access Humboldt
> site is not specific about the hardware mechanism involved.
> 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> George Bell
> 
> 
> >From: Sean McLaughlin <seanm707 at yahoo.com>
> >To: RTC <list at redwoodtech.org>
> >Subject: [RTC List] Digital Rio Dell - keeps on ticking
> >Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 23:00:55 -0700
> >
> >Looks like many of us were without Internet access and telecom
> >services today... yikes!
> >
> >But, (thanks to 101 Netlink) a redundant broadband connection was
> >still available for Digital Rio Dell to provide free wi-fi access at
> >City Hall in the "warm hearted city."
> >
> >Access Humboldt launched the Digital Rio Dell project on May 1, 2007
> >with a dedicated, redundant broadband connection and the beginnings
> >of a municipal wireless network (thanks to Jim Carlson and Nancy
> >Flemming).
> >
> >For information on Digital Rio Dell - http://accesshumboldt.net.
> >
> >Access Humboldt is working with the City of Rio Dell and private
> >partners (including Suddenlink, Carlson Wireless and Security
> >National) to build and interconnect Rio Dell's wireless broadband
> >network with a regional fiber optic Public, Education, Government
> >PEG Network that is set to launch in September 2007.
> >
> >--
> >Sean McLaughlin
> >Executive Director
> >Access Humboldt
> >P.O. Box 157, Eureka, CA 95502
> >tel: 707-476-1798
> >fax: 707-445-1956
> >cel: 707-616-2381
> >e: seanm at accesshumboldt.net
> >web:  accesshumboldt.net
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >List mailing list
> >List at redwoodtech.org
> >http://redwoodtech.org/mailman/listinfo/list_redwoodtech.org
> 
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