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

Wed Oct 10 10:26:47 PDT 2007

It looks like it is time for a special meeting of the RTC with an agenda on
this issue to plan responsible moves.  We may wish to invite our elected
representatives and service providers to this forum.

As far as the newspapers and other media - shouldn't we include them in our
list serve so they can follow this discussion?  It obviously is covering
good ideas, frustrations and very significant data.

We have a vehicle- our organization.  We have talented and informed members.
We need to create the forum to be more inclusive with the policy makers and
service providers.

Lastly, many of our companies have gone to cell phone or broadband telecom
as our primary form of verbal communications.  This affected everyone with
either of these technologies.  

Progress will be made if pressure and motivation is still present.  We
became complacent after the July outage and when things "return to normal"
we run the risk of having this issue being put on the back burner again.

That's my two cents for what it is worth.

 John W. Ennis
President
ScanDoc
P.O. Box 792
Bayside, CA  95524
(707) 476-0455
(707) 440-8002 fax
www.scandoc.com

-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounces at redwoodtech.org [mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org] On
Behalf Of Josh Koenig
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 8:03 PM
To: RTC
Subject: Re: [RTC List] [2] AT&T DSL Outage?

RTCers

I have some experience w/teh politics, and now that I'm thinking  
about truly settling in the area this feels more and more like a  
worthwhile project. In my experience, politicians and business  
leaders don't "get'r'dun" until its blindingly obvious what to do,  
and there's significant pressure to boot. :)

That said, I'm interested in doing some work to organize around this,  
providing there's interest from the list and elsewhere in the  
community. The goal would be to raise awareness of the issue in our  
communities, and to build a coalition around getting a redundant  
fiber link into Eureka, most likely along hwy 299.

Anyone else interested in chatting about this: I'll definitely be  
coming to Thursday's mixer. Also feel free to ping me directly.

Some further thoughts...

Basically, it seems like the logical course of action is to do a  
quick run-up on what the baseline cost of lost productivity is for  
one of these outage days, then figure in the projected cost of a  
longer outage or real emergency, then come up with all the non- 
quantifiable human costs (e.g. no long distance: can't call my mom!) 
_. We have two or three of these events a year on average. My guess  
is that over a couple of years, let alone the next decade, the cost  
of lost productivity and increased hassle outweighs the cost of  
completing a redundant line on the 299.

Once that's done, we will have a solid brass tacks argument. With the  
disruption of normal life providing a compelling argument on the  
standard of living basis, it should be relatively straightforward to  
build some momentum around the idea of fixing this. People are  
generally positive on the internet, and with a little savvy marketing  
I think we could generate buzz pretty easily.

The real question is where to apply pressure. The consultants study  
that produced a report last summer recommended a "new organization"  
step up and fill the gap, but I haven't heard of anything like that  
happening:

http://www.firstmile.us/pubs/MiddleMileStudy.pdf

They did estimate $11M for arial fiber, and $24M for buried, which  
are useful figures. FirstMile was supposed to produce another study  
this year looking at whether there was some hope that local telco  
providers would be interested in jointly-owning the line. I haven't  
heard anything about that.

Basically, the arial line cost is $110 for every adult in Humboldt  
county, or about $225 per household. It is also about three days  
worth of retail sales. Durable goods sales probably get made up, but  
I know that today the town was more or less dead, and nobody seemed  
to like standing out back of Bank of America waiting in line to get in.

The bottom line is that this is not a lot of money for Humboldt  
County. While people can and do shrug off a isolated days outage, the  
reality of a single link is that sooner or later a major disruption  
that spans several days will arrive, and that will be much harder to  
bear. We should fix the problem before there's a major slide on the  
Eel River canyon or a major summer fire along the 101.

cheers
-josh

> I agree with Chris - do this Google Search "fiber outage Humboldt  
> County" and realize we have a lot of talking but so far no action.   
> It is time the politicians and business leaders get on "get'r done  
> express"
>
>
>
> John W. Ennis
>
> President
>
> ScanDoc
>
> P.O. Box 792
>
> Bayside, CA  95524
>
> (707) 476-0455
>
> (707) 440-8002 fax
>
> www.scandoc.com
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
> See what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.
>
>
> -- 
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Josh Koenig, Partner
josh at chapterthreellc.com
AIM: chap3josh
1-888-822-4273

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