[RTC List] [2] AT&T DSL Outage?

Wed Oct 10 06:19:48 PDT 2007

Welly welly welly well Chris if you want to get serious, then I would
suggest a lawsuit. I would agree with the googled list and the gripes that
those of us have no other option to do. Take the 500,000 dollars that was
just awarded to the RTC/HAF and hire some lawyers.. havent we done enough
studies?

Sue our area providers for failure to deliver a product and redundancy, sue
for lost revenue - sean makes excellent points- , sue for failure to provide
emergency back up, and sue the companies that keep cutting our fibre lines
with the back hoes, sue caltrans for hiring those contractors...and sue the
county for failure to support a critical infrastructure and sitting on their
collective arses. 

we could be the first rural county to sue for access and emergency
connectivity.

how about slapping the county commissioners around or local representatives,
who troll this list, to make them understand fibre is the same as bridges
and roads, seaports and airports...

...otherwise, you can put together another 'write letters to the editor,
call your local reps, and continue this cry of outrage'

As for those that NEED to continue to do business in this situation, the
stop gaps are whats going to keep those of us doing business, doing
business. since we need to keep working regardless of the infrastructure the
county and providers are not providing for us. And get yourself a generator
folks.

if I had a better knowledge of the legal system (which seems to be one of
your core competencies) this is a path I would evaluate, any attorneys out
there?

-jonathan

------

Admittedly, I'm rather a "lurker" on this list . . . . but I am damned glad
that THIS ONE really seems to have everyone's dander up.

99% of my clients are out of the area, so I definitely got hurt today . . .
. but I think one subject that really deserves attention in a big way that
isn't getting it is the inability to process credit/debit card transactions
when this happens.

There are many ramifications here, and they are probably larger than the
loses those of us who depend upon the Internet ( not to mention long
distance phone & cell ) to operate have incurred -- what of all of the
businesses locally who can't do sales because folks can't use their
"electric money"?

For example, how much did Humboldt Merchant Services lose today over local
businesses not being able to process? 

How much did big boxes like Target, KMart, & Costco Wholesale lose? Did
Verizon and Sprint lose money because folks couldn't go over their allotted
hours this month or rack up "per use" charges, etc.? Shouldn't they be
interested in throwing some of their weight in on this?

Frankly, my wife and I have become so accustomed to this that we don't even
bother to go to the bank or the grocery store or anywhere else when this
happens. Of course, much of this will be made up for tomorrow, but how much
won't be? For example, we won't be going to the grocery store tomorrow to
buy what we were going to by, because we just dug into the freeze and the
cupboards to find something. Business lost for a grocer there.

And what about those deadliners out there who meant to pay some bill online
on time today, but couldn't and now got smacked with a late fee? Those late
fees also must trickle out of spending that would contribute to this economy
locally. 

Did local "day traders" lose money or fail to make money because they
couldn't trade? Even in a county this size, there must be some losses here
to the local economy.

Any real estate deals didn't close today?

Has anyone on this list lost a prospect or a client because of these issues?
Probably not a major issue here, but every dollar lost here is a dollar not
working for this local economy.

The issues here are MUCH larger than the techie/IT interests of the RTC,
really; they probably concern most of all of the businesses and business in
this area.

As for me, fortunately I run a "virtual" office, and I'm the only one stuck
in these situations, so it's not like my whole business is stopped because
of it . . . . but, even just these 4 days of cut fiber issues since last
Christmas are enough to make me relocate to Portland. I can't take it any
more. I'm sure there are others who are seriously weighing whether they
should hang in there and wait, or relocate to somewhere with redundancy. In
all honestly, this isn't the only reason I'm relocating ( air faire would be
another major issue, as well as opportunities for my wife who can't find
much in the way of that here ), but this issue has to have folks thinking
about whether they really want to relocate TO here ( as we did several years
ago ) or about whether they want to relocate FROM here ( as we are doing now
). None of this could be at all good for the local economy.

It saddens me because I came here with an ethic of bringing money INTO this
economy form outside, but now I'm just going to have to take that to
Portland. But before I go, I'm completely on board with any serious measures
to put pressure on ANY of the "powers that be" to rally absolutely everyone
to the cause of getting some redundancy up in here ( and I really think we
need to "think outside the box" in terms of getting folks who aren't as
Internet-dependent as we all are to see how it is affecting them and get
them on board with the cause ).

All the best,

--  Sean

  _____  

From: list-bounces at redwoodtech.org [mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org] On
Behalf Of CrawfordCA at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 2:04 PM
To: list at redwoodtech.org
Subject: Re: [RTC List] [2] AT&T DSL Outage?

The fiber connection was lost today. The airport (where I was flying out to
Baltimore) was issuing hand written boarding passes and luggage routing
slips. Cell phones couldn't reach outside the area and most lines when I
tried to call in from SFO connect to a recording announcing "technical
difficulties." Oddly, one or two lines into the area actually worked.

Let's use this as a rallying cry to accelerate redundant fiber. This is NOT
an option. Hughstat, satellite, dial-up and other back-ups cannot sustain
the whole community. This is serious stuff. Thank goodness the airport
learned a few manual workarounds this time or else connection to air traffic
and weather would have grounded all flights. Our hospitals, first responders
and a lot more rely on connectivity to operate.

Let's "git 'er done."

Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com

``````````````````````````````````
In a message dated 10/9/2007 1:27:38 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
jspeaker at streamguys.com writes:

Hughsat is keeping our team working. Strongly suggest it as a stopgap for
those companies that need to stay up for their clients outside the area, or
here locally.

-jonathan 

-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounces at redwoodtech.org [mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org] On
Behalf Of Jim Scott
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 12:11 PM
To: List at redwoodtech.org
Subject: [RTC List] AT&T DSL Outage?

AT&T DSL service has been out in Cutten since approximately 9 a.m.  
this morning. I'm using AT&T's backup dialup service to post this, so POTS
is still working. Anyone else lose DSL this morning?

Jim Scott

  _____  

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